earticle

영어

The aim of this study was to investigate the level of microbial contamination in sponge pad for interferential current therapy, and compare the cleaning and the disinfection for removing bacteria in order to provide fundamental data for the prevention of nosocomial infection at the physical therapy rooms. The data were collected from 20 sponge pads of 7 electrotherapy rooms. 3M Petrifilmtm was used for counting the colonies of general microorganism, and for detection of coli form group bacteria of each sponge pad. For the calculation of the removing bacteria, microorganism after the cleaning and the disinfection was cultured. Data were analysed using Kruscal-Wallis test. The results of this study showed that the average of colonies of sponge pads before the cleaning or the disinfection is 4,989,904 CFU(colony-forming unit)/pad, and coli form group bacteria were detected in the 8 sponge pads out of the 20 sponge pads. There were significant differences between the rate of removing bacteria of the cleaning and the disinfection( p<.01), the group disinfected(99.9%) was more effective for removing bacteria than the group cleaned(60.9%). For this reason, physical therapy departments have to devise the systemed guidelines for cleanliness of physical therapy instruments. In addition, physical therapists should understand the seriousness of nosocomial infection at the physical therapy rooms and direct their efforts to manage the sponge pads in more hygienic way.