Does Pulsed-Xenon Ultraviolet Disinfection Add Additional Value to Manual Cleaning?

Abstract Background Novel disinfection tools have been used to supplement standard hospital cleaning protocols. This study was conducted to determine whether the addition of Pulsed Xenon Ultraviolet disinfection (PX-UV) increased the effectiveness of manual cleaning with four different environmental cleaning and disinfecting agents and how their performance compared with the industry standard of sodium hypochlorite 10%. Methods Research staff collected 600 pre-clean, post-clean, and post-clean + PX-UV environmental samples of aerobic bacterial colonies (ABC) and MRSA from five high touch surfaces (bedrail, call button, toilet seat, bathroom grab rail, tray table). The PX-UV device was used three times - one 5 minute cycle on each side of the patient bed and one 5 minute cycle in the restroom. Results Wilcoxon signed-rank tests showed post-clean ABC counts were significantly different from post-clean + PX-UV clean counts for soap and water (P < 0.001), quaternary ammonium compound (P < 0.001), and hydrogen peroxide (P < 0.001), but not for sodium hypochlorite 10% (P = 0.78). A negative binomial mixed regression model showed that post-clean + PX-UV ABC counts for Soap and water were 8.6 times higher than post-clean ABC counts for sodium hypochlorite 10% solution, holding all other factors constant, P = 0.001. Post-clean ABC counts for QAC + UV were 6 times higher than post-clean ABC counts for sodium hypochlorite 10% solution, holding all other factors constant, P = 0.004. A Kruskal–Wallis test indicated there was no statistically significant difference in MRSA counts between cleaning chemicals at post-clean (P = 0.1563) or post-clean + UV (P = 0.337), indicating that the cleaning chemicals performed equally well at each stage. UV further statistically significantly lowered MRSA counts beyond the post-clean level only for the quaternary ammonium compound group (P = 0.0073). Conclusion The addition of PX-UV significantly improves disinfection for soap and water, hydrogen peroxide, and quaternary ammonium compound, but not for sodium hypochlorite 10%. This improvement does not bring microbial levels to those seen when using sodium hypochlorite 10% alone. Disclosures C. Jinadatha, Xenex Healthcare Services: CRADA, Research support