Suitability of electrolyzed oxidizing water for the disinfection of hard surfaces and equipment in radiology

Background: hospitals are faced with increasingly resistant strains of micro-organisms. when it comes to disinfection,individual parts of electronic equipment of angiology diagnostics such as patient couches of computer tomography(ct) and magnetic resonance imaging (mri) scanners prove to be very hard to disinfect. disinfectants of choice aretherefore expected to possess properties such as rapid, residue-free action without any damaging effect on thesensitive electronic equipment. this paper discusses the use of the neutral electrolyzed oxidizing water (eow) as abiocide for the disinfection of diagnostic rooms and equipment.methods: the ct and mri rooms were aerosolized with eow using aerosolization device. the presence ofmicro-organisms before and after the aerosolization was recorded with the help of sedimentation and cyclone airsampling. total body count (tbc) was evaluated in absolute and log values.results: the number of micro-organisms in hospital rooms was low as expected. nevertheless, a possible tbcreduction between 78.99–92.50% or 50.50–70.60% in log values was recorded.conclusions: the research has shown that the use of eow for the air and hard surface disinfection can considerablyreduce the presence of micro-organisms and consequently the possibility of hospital infections. it has also demonstratedthat the sedimentation procedure is insufficient for the tbc determination. the use of biocide aerosolization proved tobe efficient and safe in all applied ways. also, no eventual damage to exposed devices or staff was recorded.