The project ‘Self sterilizing surgical tray’ is the design of a simple and reliable solution in preventing surgical site infections occurring from contaminated surgical instruments, once they are kept open on surgical instrument tray during a surgical procedure.

In this design project extensive research is done on the standard practices that should be followed and the adherence of hospitals towards it. Different people working in the OR and associated facilities were interviewed and data was collected to understand the current scenario in Indian ORs, few OR visit and surgical procedure was also witnessed. Direct contamination of microbes from contaminated surgical instruments to the patient and air bone contaminants are the major cause of surgical site infections(SSI) in hospitals. So just by maintaining the OR air quality and keeping the sterility of instruments throughout the surgery can drastically bring down the SSI rates.

Highly efficient air filtration systems are very expensive and bulky which most of the Indian hospitals can't afford. Due to the large number of patients, lack of proper infrastructure, and staff, due to administrative issues and negligence of OR staff the procedures are often bypassed this shoots up the SSI rates. So equipment which maintains the OR air quality and reduces the bioburden on surgical instruments without harming the personnel or instruments will be an ideal solution for this issue.

With these thoughts in mind, various methods used for sterilization and their feasibility in reducing the microbial load without harming the occupants and instruments were studied. From those insights, mind mapping was done and came out with various ideations. Then it was transformed into concepts after expert advice and the final concept was evolved.

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• Self Sterilizing Surgical Instrument Tray......
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