Spore Testing

Spore Testing- for each office sterilizer

According to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines… “If spores are not killed in routine spore tests, the sterilizer should immediately be checked for proper use and function and the spore test repeated. If the spore test remains positive, use of the sterilizer should be discontinued until it is serviced.”

A negative spore test tells the operator two things:

• the process was adequate to kill the spores and
• instruments in the location of the spore strips were also sterilized.

Positive spore tests indicate a failed process, and the load is not sterile. Any positive should be considered a process failure. False-positives are rare.

Positive results may be caused when:

• Packs are improperly prepared.
• The sterilizer is overloaded.
• The sterilizer does not work properly.
• The process time is too short.