Evaluation of the efficacy and influence of the decontamination and sterilization of FBGs exposed to S. aureus and E. coli

The FBGs (Fibre Bragg Grating) are adequate sensors for measuring strain in biomedical applications. This work evaluates the efficacy of some products and processes, which are used for the decontamination and sterilization of these sensors. Fibre optic samples, partially stripped of the primary coating, were contaminated by E. coli and S. aureus and suffered decontamination processes by autoclave heating, immersion in ethylene oxide, sodium hypochlorite, chloramine T or peracetic acid and illumination ultra-violet radiation. After each process fibre samples were removed, washed in sterile saline and placed individually in BHI broth tubes. Tubes that showed turbidity of the BHI broth were considered positive. The sterilization practices by heating and immersionand avoided the formation of bacteria colonies, whereas illumination processes were not effective to avoid the bacteria colony growth.