JPH10263022A - Medical waste disposal system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a medical waste disposal system capable of completely sterilizing wet infectious medical waste such as a dialyzer. SOLUTION: A medical waste disposal system, which performs dry heating sterilization by heating a sealed container holding medical waste A, includes a heating element 5 which rushes into the medical waste A in the sealed container. As dry the heating sterilization is performed by heating the sealed container, the inside is also heated by the heat of the heating element 5 which has rushed into the medical waste A.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a medical waste treatment apparatus, and more particularly to a medical waste treatment apparatus employing a dry heat sterilization method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Among medical instruments, instruments made of synthetic resin, such as a syringe, an artificial kidney (dialyzer), and a blood circuit, which allow blood or moisture to pass therethrough, become infected after use. Treated as sexual medical waste,
It is stipulated by law that sterilization should be performed at the time of disposal. Conventionally, several sterilization methods have been defined, and one of them is dry heat sterilization. As a means for dry heat sterilization, medical waste is put in a closed container and the closed container itself is heated, or a hot air is blown into a closed container containing medical waste as shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. By circulating, the temperature inside the closed vessel is raised to a high temperature (180
There is a hot air circulation system in which the temperature is increased to at least ℃.

In the hot air circulation system shown in FIG. 3, a medical waste A made of a synthetic resin such as a dialyzer is put into a sterilization chamber 81 formed by a closed container, and the medical waste A is passed through the sterilization chamber 81 through hot air H. The medical waste A thus heated is transferred to the crushing chamber 82 and finely crushed.
It is stored in the storage room 83.

The hot air circulation system shown in FIG.
In this method, the fine medical waste A crushed in advance is transferred to a sterilization chamber 85, which is a closed container, and heated to a high temperature by the hot air H in the sterilization chamber 85. After returning to the hot-air generating section 87 through 86, the temperature is raised in the hot-air generating section 87 and recirculated. The medical waste A heat-treated in the sterilization chamber 85 is then stored in the storage room 88.

The crushing process performed in the crushing chambers 82 and 84 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is useful for improving the heat transfer of the medical waste A and reducing the area occupied by the waste.

[0006]

However, among infectious wastes, instruments that allow blood or moisture to pass therethrough, such as dialyzers, even after use, are made of hollow fibers made of fibers such as polyacetate. Since the yarn is kept in a wet state, the entire medical waste including the dialyzer remains in a considerably wet state even after the crushing treatment is performed to reduce the volume. When medical waste such as a dialyzer that keeps such a wet state is subjected to dry heat sterilization by the container heating method or the hot air circulation method as described above, the outside of the medical waste is heated to a high temperature. Even if the treatment can be performed, a situation occurs in which the temperature does not rise while the inside is wet, and there has been a problem that it is difficult to completely sterilize medical waste.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, and provides a medical waste treatment apparatus capable of completely sterilizing wet infectious medical waste such as a dialyzer. It is intended to be.

[0008]

A medical waste treatment apparatus according to the present invention heats a closed container containing medical waste or circulates hot air through the closed container to dry heat the medical waste. The medical waste treatment apparatus for sterilizing is provided with a heating element that is inserted into the medical waste in the closed container and heats the inside of the medical waste.

According to the invention, the medical waste is heated or circulated through the sealed container containing the medical waste, whereby the medical waste is subjected to the above-mentioned treatment. Dry heat sterilization is performed.
According to the present invention, at the same time as performing such dry heat sterilization, the inside of the medical waste is heated by the heat generated by the heating element rushed into the medical waste, and the medical waste is removed. A phenomenon occurs in which the internal temperature rises. Therefore, it is possible to completely sterilize medical waste in a wet state such as a dialyzer.

In the present invention, it is desirable that the heating element is covered with a coating having a fluororesin surface as a surface. As the covering, a housing that covers the heating element from its surroundings can be used. When such a casing is used as a cover, the casing itself is made of fluororesin and its surface is made of fluororesin, or a casing made of metal or ceramics is coated with fluororesin. May be used as a coating, and the surface of the coating may be the surface of the fluororesin forming the coating layer. Fluororesins have a melting temperature of the sterilization temperature (eg, 180
℃), and has excellent heat resistance, so that it does not melt due to the heat generated by the heating element, and furthermore, has the property that medical waste made of resin is not easily attached. It depends. And, as in the present invention, when the heating element is covered with a coating having a fluororesin surface as a surface,
Since the heating element does not come into contact with the medical waste, the situation in which the medical waste once melted by the above-described processing adheres to the heating element does not occur when the medical waste is solidified by subsequent cooling.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of a medical waste treatment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this treatment apparatus, a container heating method is adopted as a method for heating the sterilization chamber 3. This processing apparatus has a crushing chamber 2 in which a crushing blade 22 driven by an electric motor 21 is installed, and a sterilization chamber 3. The crushing chamber 2 is provided with an input section 23 for inputting the medical waste A. In the sterilization chamber 3, the inlet 31 for the medical waste A is marked with an arrow b.
A lid 32 that opens and closes as shown in FIG. Further, the sterilization chamber 3 includes a heating mechanism 4 formed by appropriate means such as a heater on the outside, and a heating element 5 on the inside. When the lid 32 is opened, the heating element 5 is moved up and down with respect to the sterilization chamber 3 as indicated by an arrow a.

In such a medical waste treatment apparatus,
The sterilization chamber 3 cooperates with the lid 32 to form a closed container.
Therefore, medical waste A is disposed of in the closed container.

The medical waste A input from the input section 23 is crushed by a crushing blade 22 driven by an electric motor 21, and the crushed medical waste A is passed through an opening 31 having an open lid 32 to sterilize the sterilization chamber 3. And processed in a sealed container formed by the sterilization chamber 3 and the lid 32.
That is, after all of the medical waste transferred to the sterilization chamber 3 after the crushing step is completed, the heating mechanism 4 starts operating, and the sterilization chamber 3 is heated by the heating mechanism 4. At the same time, the heating element 5 descends from above to enter the inside of the sterilization chamber 3 and rush into the medical waste A. Subsequently, after the lid 32 is closed and the sterilization chamber 3 is sealed, the heating element 5 is closed.
Starts to heat the inside of the medical waste A. Then, after the medical waste A is heat-sterilized at a predetermined temperature for a predetermined time, the lid 32 is opened, the heating element 5 is raised above the sterilization chamber 3, and then, after the temperature of the medical waste A is lowered to room temperature, The treated medical waste A is taken out of the sterilization chamber 3.

FIG. 2 shows a medical waste treatment apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention. This processing apparatus employs a hot air circulation system as a method for heating the sterilization chamber 3,
It differs from that of FIG. That is, in this processing apparatus, the hot-air circulation path 6 is connected to the sterilization chamber 3 and the hot-air generation section 61 is interposed in the hot-air circulation path 6. And circulates to the sterilization chamber 3. Other configurations and actions such as a method of heating the inside of the medical waste A in the sterilization chamber 3 are as follows.
1 are the same as those described with reference to FIG. 1, and for the sake of simplicity, the same portions are denoted by the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

As the heating element 5 used in the processing apparatus described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, a known heating element such as one utilizing electric resistance heating can be appropriately selected and used. The shape of the heating element 5 may be a rod as shown, a plate (not shown), or another shape. The heating temperature of the heating element 5 should be appropriately set according to the type of the medical waste A. The heat generation temperature can be controlled by attaching a temperature measurement unit such as a thermocouple to the heating element 5 and using temperature information from the temperature measurement unit. The exothermic temperature is the sterilization temperature (eg, 180 ° C)
However, it is desired to control the temperature within a range such that heating is not excessive.

The heating element 5 is desirably covered with a cover (not shown) having a fluororesin surface as a surface. As the covering, a housing that covers the heating element 5 from the periphery thereof can be used. When such a casing is used as a cover, the casing itself is made of fluororesin and its surface is made of fluororesin, or a casing made of metal or ceramics is coated with fluororesin. May be used as a coating, and the surface of the coating may be the surface of the fluororesin forming the coating layer. When the heating element 5 is covered with the above-described coating, the heating element 5 does not come into contact with the medical waste A, and the surface of the coating is a fluororesin surface. When the waste A is solidified by the subsequent cooling, a situation in which the waste A adheres to the surface of the heating element 5 or the covering does not occur.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the shape and the number of the heating elements 5 and the method of entering the medical waste can be adopted in any form according to the shapes and mechanisms of the charging section 23, the crushing chamber 2, and the sterilization chamber 3.
Further, the medical waste before crushing may be subjected to both dry heat sterilization and heat sterilization by a heating element, and the sterilized medical waste may be guided to a crushing chamber and crushed. it can.

[0018]

As described above in detail, according to the medical waste treatment apparatus of the present invention, even if it is a medical waste made of synthetic resin in a wet state containing moisture such as a dialyzer or the like, there is no problem in internal use. Can be dry-sterilized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an embodiment of a medical waste treatment apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing another embodiment of the medical waste disposal apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of a conventional processing apparatus used for dry heat sterilization.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of another conventional processing apparatus used for dry heat sterilization.

[Description of Signs] A Medical Waste 2 Crushing Room 3 Sterilization Room 4 Heating Mechanism 5 Heating Element

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A medical waste treatment apparatus for sterilizing dry medical treatment of medical waste by heating a closed container containing medical waste or circulating hot air through the closed container. A medical waste treatment apparatus, comprising: a heating element that is inserted into waste and heats the inside of the medical waste. 2. The medical waste treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating element is covered with a coating having a fluororesin surface as a surface.