Ozone disinfection of home nebulizers effectively kills common cystic fibrosis bacterial pathogens

ObjectiveThe Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) recommends routine nebulizer disinfection for patients but compliance is challenging due to the heavy burden of home care. SoClean (R) is a user friendly ozone based home disinfection device currently for home respiratory equipment. The objective of this study was to determine whether SoClean (R) has potential as a disinfection device for families with CF by killing CF associated bacteria without altering nebulizer output. HypothesisOzone based disinfection effectively kills bacterial pathogens inoculated to home nebulizer equipment without gross changes in nebulizer function. Study DesignCommon bacterial pathogens associated with CF were inoculated onto the PariLC (R) jet nebulizer and bacterial recovery compared with or without varied ozone exposure. In separate experiments, nebulizer output was estimated after repeated ozone exposure by weighing the nebulizer. ResultsOzone disinfection was time dependent with a 5min infusion time and 120min dwell time effectively killing >99.99% bacteria tested including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Over 250h of repeat ozone exposure did not alter nebulizer output. This suggests SoClean (R) has potential as a user-friendly disinfection technique for home respiratory equipment.