Effect of sterilization on contaminated sponges

Sponges are routinely used as a storage medium for endodontic files during clinical practice; however, very little research has been done to determine the effectiveness of sterilization procedures for these contaminated sponges. The purpose of this in vitro study was to determine the efficacy of chemical vapor sterilizers (chemiclaves), steam pressure sterilizers (autoclaves), and dry heat sterilizers on laboratory contaminated sponges. Four different types of sponges were used in this study: a black, relatively nonporous sponge; a red, semiporous stationary sponge; a blue, endodontic sponge, and a yellow, common household sponge. Natural sponges were eliminated from the study, because their large pore size made them unsuitable as a storage medium for endodontic instruments. The sponges were divided into three groups: chemiclave, autoclave, and dry heat. Five samples of each sponge type were impregnated with biological indicating strips containing spores of Bacillus stearothermophilus. Each sponge was subjected to 25 cycles of sterilization. The spore strip indicator was inserted into the sponges at 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 cycles. The spore strip was cultivated in trypticase soy broth medium solution at 55 +/- 1 degree C for 7 days. At 7 days the culture vials were read for turbidity; its presence indicating a positive culture. The samples that were subjected to chemiclaving demonstrated positive cultures of 0.00%, 0.00%, and 30.00% and those to autoclaving 3.33%, 0.00%, and 0.00% positive cultures for the black, red, and blue sponge types, respectively. None of the sponges survived dry heat sterilization. The O-Cell-O sponges become unusable when subjected to all of the sterilization methods used in this study.