Disinfecting DermaJet Needles..

[stephanie]

Hi Sarah, sorry to bother you but I have a quick question about disinfecting the DermaJet needles.

After I've soaked the cartridge in alcohol, it is quite a pain to get all the alcohol out, because it gets caught between the actual piece with the needles and the casing (hope I explained that right) and it kind of spits alcohol when turned on.  I turn it on for a bit before using it to get the most out that I can, but I haven't been able to get it out completely.     

So, my question is... would it be okay to used even if the cartridge is not completely dry from the alcohol?  I know that we can put alcohol on cuts and stuff, but I was still wondering if it was okay for the needles to penetrate the skin while the cartridge is still spilling some alcohol.

If not, what is the best was to dry it out completely?

Thanks so much for your time and help. 

[SarahVaughter]

Just remove the alcohol by rinsing it in clean tap water. Tap water in the industrialized world does not contain any kind of infectious qty of dangerous bacteria or spores. Sometimes water can contain parasites but they are unable to infect a person via the skin - only via the stomach. Cleaning is very, very much more important than disinfection or even sterilization. If you have doubts on the quality of your tap water, use deionized water from the pharmacy or even bottled water.

And you can use your fingers while doing that. If you are afraid of infection, wear new latex gloves.

I have learnt to work in a sterile environment and I know that unless you take extreme precautions (max. speed of moving limbs, position of limbs, wearing a "space suit", wearing two sets of gloves over eachother with disinfectant in between and on them, never touching your own body, washing hands for 10 minutes, wearing hear and face protection, autoclaving all instruments etc.) you can not avoid contaminating instruments. However I also understand microbiology and infectious disease etiology and I know that the risk of infection when you use my recommendations is extremely small because your own skin contains many orders of magnitude more bacteria anyway, and you can't kill all of them just by swiping them with ethanol or Iodine.

Fact is - those bacteria are harmless. They are "good" bacteria. They are the flora that protect you against infections.

[stephanie]

Thanks a lot for the quick reply and explanation!