Trial of a novel plasma gas disinfection system (Radica) to reduce mattress residual bacterial contamination in the acute hospital setting: a preliminary study

Background: In routine clinical practice, mattresses are manually cleaned using specialised cleaning and high-level disinfecting fluids. While effective against a wide range of organisms, the success of this approach is dependent on a thorough and complete application and is likely to be susceptible to human error and thus variable. The efficacy of available infection control measures to reduce such mattress contamination is unknown as it is not subject to quality control measures. There is a pressing need to identify more effective methods to prevent cross contamination within the medical environment, given the lack of available treatment strategies. Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the ability of a new technology, gaseous technology, to reduce colonization levels, compared to standard cleaning, and so attenuate superficial nosocomial infections. Methods: We conducted a prospective, single-centre, open-label, non-randomized trial with blinded outcome assessments, comparing the standard cleaning of hospital mattresses with a novel plasma based disinfection system Radica™, followed by a standard post-cleaning culturing protocol (five swabs/mattress). Results: The median (interquartile range) maximal colony count per mattress for the 20 Radica versus 7 routinely cleaned mattresses was 1 (1–2.7) versus Too-Numerous-to-Count (TNTC) (32-TNTC), respectively, p = 0.002. Of the 20 Radica™ treated mattresses, 12 (60 %) had no positive culture result while all of the standard cleaned mattresses had at least two positive cultures. Conclusion: The plasma based Radica disinfection system reduces mattress bacterial colonization levels as compared to routine cleaning. This is a potentially important technology in the health care system to reduce surface colonisation and hence nosocomial infections.