Single Use Versus Reusable Kerrisons

Do you often have problems with your reusable kerrisons becoming dull and damaged or accumulating dried blood and bone residue? Did you know this can often lead to Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAIs), risking patient safety. These are significant risks – what other options are there?

Did you know you can now purchase high-quality single-use Kerrisons?

You may be thinking that if I go with a single-use kerrison, this will have a significant cost and a higher impact on the environment. Those are two excellent points. However, I am going to discuss why single-use kerrisons are a safe and easy option for you, even if you have them as a backup in your department.

The key points throughout this blog that will be discussed are:

  • Cost
  • Sustainability
  • Performance
  • Sterilisation process
  • Health risks
  • Time

Reusable Kerrisons:

Pros:

  • Cost:

Reusable kerrisons allow for long-term cost-effectiveness. While the initial investment is high, if you have purchased a high-quality kerrison, it will likely last many procedures if adequately maintained. This results in a decreased cost per procedure.

  • Sustainability:

Reusable instruments are often deemed to have more of a significant environmental benefit. Less waste generation, better carbon footprint due to fewer manufacturing and transportation emissions, and reduced demand for raw materials and manufacturing processes.

  • Performance:

Expensive reusable kerrisons offer the highest standard of manufacturing processes, giving you the smoothest and most delicate cutting operation available. This means reusable kerrison’s are often preferred by surgeons despite some of the negatives associated with them.

Cons:

  • Sterilisation Process:

The sterilisation process for reusable kerrisons involves multiple steps. This includes immediate post-surgical cleaning, which consists of removing any biological materials to remove debris and an autoclaving process at high temperatures to follow strict hospital infection control guidelines. This can also cause challenges such as instrument degradation due to repeated sterilisation and damage to the instrument.

Health Risks:

Reusable Kerrisons can accumulate bioburden, dried blood and bone residue over time. This can lead to Health Acquired Infections (HAIs), risking patient safety. Therefore, it is an excellent idea to have single-use kerrisons as a backup in your department to ensure a clean, sharp cut every time and guarantee sterility for all patients.

Replacement Cost:

In the event that your Reusable Kerrisons become damaged, broken, or lost, you are faced with significant replacement costs of between $2000-$3000 per instrument. This can put significant pressure on department budgets and result in departments having fewer Kerrison sets than are needed, limiting access for consultants.

Single Use Kerrisons:

Pros:

  • Sterility and Infection Control:

Single-use instruments offer guaranteed sterility and infection prevention. Each Kerrison is individually packed and sterilised, which eliminates any cross-contamination risks. Every kerrison opened is 100% sterile and has consistent quality for every use. It reduces potential surgical site infections and eliminates the concern for incomplete sterilisation. There is no need to chase up the sterile service team to determine where your kerrison is, as you have a new one each time.

  • Cost:

Single-use kerrisons provide an excellent low-cost alternative to reusable kerrisons. At a per-procedure cost of $170-$200, single-use kerrisons can be easily substituted during a procedure for a reusable kerrison that has become dull or damaged without a large impact on your budget.

  • Performance:

Single-use kerrisons allow for a brand new cutting edge for every procedure. This means you will have optimal sharpness and precision, meaning there is no degradation from repeated use. Single-use kerrisons also allow for more frequent material and manufacturing advancements. They have the potential for specialised coatings and enhanced designs.

Cons:

  • Manufacturing quality:

As single-use kerrisons are manufactured to minimise cost, they often appear low-quality compared to high-cost reusable alternatives. The delicate, smooth operation of a reusable instrument is hard to replicate in a low-cost single-use device. Despite that, focusing on the single-use instrument has been put into a sharp cutting edge, and this has received positive feedback from consultants.

  • Sustainability:

The biggest drawback with single-use kerrisons is sustainability. Purchasing single-use kerrisons for patient safety and a sharp kerrison may look good. However, you may need help justifying the environmental impacts of disposing of the kerrison once used. This is a very fair statement to be concerned about; however, it is helpful for theatre teams to discuss this with sterile services as the environmental impacts of re-sterilising reusable instruments, including water and power use, strong cleaning chemical use, and sterile packaging disposal can be as significant as disposing of a single-use Kerrison.

Conclusion:

The choice between single-use and reusable kerrisons is not straightforward. Each has its pros and cons; therefore, it is essential to evaluate each factor to determine what is best for your department. The most successful method for departments is often a hybrid model, where you stock some single-use kerrisons as backups for your reusable fleet, allowing you to take advantage of the convenience of the single-use products, without sacrificing the benefits of reusable kerrisons. For more information on the single-use kerrisons, please get in touch with the team today.