Surface characterization of reprocessed single-use medical catheters by fractal mass dimension

Abstract

Reprocessing of single-use medical devices is an issue of concern and discussion due to infection risk and operation failure. Cleaning procedures and sterilization processes can produce structural changes and relevant topographical alteration of the biomedical device surfaces which may activate mechanisms able to cause unwanted biological response. Atomic Force Microscopy analysis (AFM) to measure Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) catheters surface roughness variation along successive sterilization cycles was applied. In this work, the relation between the number of reprocessing cycles and the fractal mass dimension of reprocessed catheter surface microscopic images is studied.