A question for you Helmer UltraCW cell washer users. In the preventive matintenance schedule it indicates that a rather extensive system flushing should be performed on a weekly basis. How many of you are actually flushing the system as described on a wekly basis and if not why not.

I am having a battle with a corporate medical director over this. My contention is that, first off this is a recommendation based on heavy use of the machine and since we will not be using it heavily the flushing procedure is a lot of work for no benefit and quarterly or even semi-annual would be quite enough based on our use of cell washers. Her contention is that if the manufacturer recommends it we must follow it; end of discussion. To counter this my stand is that this is a machine, not an instrument or reagent that was processed through the FDA's 510K process. Anything the manufacturer suggests/recommends is simply that, a suggestion/recomendation.

This came up because we use corporate wide, standardized SOPs and we are in the process of writing an SOP for the use and care of these machines.

We currently use the Helmer cell washer. We do the flushing weekly as recommended by the manufacturer. My thought was that it may be more important when the washer is used less frequently. The saline may dry up in the small openings creating clogs. It may also grow bacteria if not frequently flushed. It doesn't really take that long anyway.

Robin D

We also do it weekly. If you every had Pseudomonas growing in the line of a cell washer, you'd never miss the system flush -- it takes months to clean out all the nooks and crannies!!

Items like this are best addressed with a risk management approach: the risk of not doing it, compared to the benefits of doing it. I almost always accept a written decision to go against a manufacturer's recommendation, as long as the sole reason isn't cost.

We follow the weekly flushing guidelines. We do not use the cell washers that much and have found that the weekly flushing is very important. Saline drying in ports and causing issues.

I appreciate the input. My clinical engineer installed a two way valve in the saline line so we can easily switch between the saline cube and the wash solution. It works great and makes the weekly flushing much easier. Looks like once again I fall in line.

Would anyone be willing to share their maintenance protocol for this device. The manufacturer is recommending bleach which I will not use because of the affect it has on the S antigen. Helmer at this point doesn't recommend any substitute. Is anyone using Microcide SQ?

Weekly rinse seems pretty aggressive.

Has anyone using a monthly or quarterly rinse schedule noticed any problems with serological test results or adverse affects on the device?

We test the last rinse after bleaching with pH paper to confirm all the bleach was adequately removed.

I don't worry about antigen degradation, since we rarely use it any more.

We do the weekly maintenance on the cell washer as well. We flush with a 10% bleach soln, again with DI water to rinse out bleach, and finally with saline. Seems to work well and only takes about 10 minutes.

We do the weekly flushing as well with the 10% bleach, then water, then back to saline. The last thing I do afterwards is wipe off the excess liquid left on the lid and around the top; this prevents salt buildup on the lid, hinges, etc.

I have learned that the manufacturers of the Ultra CW (Switzerland) do not allow use of bleach to disinfect the device because it is so corrosive. I have contacted Helmer about this..they are working on it.

just curious, does this model leave a "dry cell button"? If not, how many drops of saline is left in the tubes when the wash cycle is complete? I am having problems with another model leaving about 2 drops of saline in the tubes. Just wondered how others worked.

This absolutely leaves a dry cell button. If the button is not dry enough you can adjust the spin time for decant and make it so!

This is the only cell washer I have worked with that doesn't need the volume adjusted with every new cube of saline. I have NEVER had to adjust the volume in the 12 months we have used it! I would (and have) recommend this product with no reservations.

I totally with TrekTech2. It is a great cell washer. We flush it weekly.

Our blood supplier also uses this cellwasher. They report the outside of the tubes to be really wet. Has anyone else seen this?

The only time the tubes were wet on the outside was when one of my techs put the top inside collar in upside down! You might tell them to check it out!

I am a beta site for Helmer for a non bleach product - microcide. After using Sorval cell washers for 35 years at multiple institutions and never bleaching the systems and never having a problem I have recommended to the manufacturer monthly cleaning with microcide. is adequate. Tesiting is not yet complete. Stay tuned.

Keep us posted, as I hope Helmer would also do.

I am a beta site for Helmer for a non bleach product - microcide. After using Sorval cell washers for 35 years at multiple institutions and never bleaching the systems and never having a problem I have recommended to the manufacturer monthly cleaning with microcide. is adequate. Tesiting is not yet complete. Stay tuned.

Any update on the PM schedule with Microcide from Helmer? It would be great to have something official as I'm currently writing the SOP. THX!

We do not use the cell washer frequently either, and we do flush the system weekly. If you are using is less is it less dirty?

Teresa