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

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