Cleaning cannulas

Flush with pure ethanol…
For psychological reasons, repack in a small plastic bag ;-)

Purchase ‘Milton’ tablets from supermarkets / pharmacies.
Drop a couple in a tub of warm water add cannulas, leave for 20 mins.
Milton is very handy at home.

I throw them away.

I don’t re-use cannulas between different people, because you never know what disease somebody has, and there is no perfect disinfection method. Well, a +500C autoclave would do everything including, I am told, possibly even the BSE prion stuff but it won’t do a cannula much good

But I do keep cannulas from people who might fly with me again. I wash them out very thoroughly in IPA (isopropyl alcohol) and blow the excess out by holding the feed end of the cannula against the outlet of a scuba air cylinder Then I hang them out for a few weeks, and then pack them in plastic bags, not sealed. Each such person’s cannula is marked with their initials.

For ad hoc passengers at altitude you want a proper plane, like a PA46.

Peter wrote:

because you never know what disease somebody has

Do you also not reuse silverware / bedding at home (for guests I mean?)?

I personally just dip the tips for a bit in ethanol. It evaporates better than water.
I don’t have such equipment, but I’m sure a baby bottle steriliser or something of the sorts (sous vide machine), or even dishwasher ought to do the job properly.

Peter wrote:

I don’t re-use cannulas between different people, because you never know what disease somebody has, and there is no perfect disinfection method

Milton?? Read the packet.
Cleaner than anything outside of a hospital Surgery.

Peter wrote:

Then I hang them out for a few weeks

That’ll definitely ensure they are not Sterile.

I’d still be happy to use them though…. :-)

Good to know about Milton, thanks. Although, as said before, I think the “hygiene” here is purely psychological. The spoons you eat from at a restaurant will likely have been scrubbing nicely against other people’s tongues, lips and palates, just a couple minutes before, and just have been washed with soap and hot water.

But on the other hand I was born French and we have the reputation to be pigs!

I asked someone to use his Litle John after drinking too much water while on hot crosscountry flight, so I asked if it was cleanned from last time? he asked if I have other choices?

I do have two sick bags tough one for me and one for all pax ;)

I think there is a difference between cutlery and crockery (washed at say +65C with washing machine detergent) and a tube which goes up somebody’s nose and which has a long inaccessible hole. A cannula must obviously be washed out with some liquid which kills germs etc. And then it has to be dried because it is very hard to get the said liquid out of the inside of the long tubing.

A big factor in the design of medical equipment is whether germs can hide in orifices which cannot be cleaned effectively. In the medical sphere all that stuff gets discarded after a single use. One can probably argue both ways whether cannulas should be re-used for the same person; my (non medically qualified) opinion is that they can be.