Safety of reusing cardiac electrophysiology catheters

Although reprocessing and reusage of electrode catheters is common among institutions performing electrophysiologic studies, the results of this study indicate that the potential for chemical residual contamination may exist after resterilization with ethylene oxide. These results, obtained with frequently used sterilization techniques, provide an objective basis to recommend that laboratories reusing electrode catheters establish and implement a validation protocol for catheter reprocessing. Based on analysis of the data acquired with our reusage protocol, it is the current policy of the Clinical Electrophysiology Laboratory at Barnes Hospital to use electrode catheters only once.