After the aseptic cotton swab is opened, how long is the validity period?

How long is the validity period of disposable cotton swab after opening? Does the cotton swab of zipper self sealing package meet the requirements of sterility?

Disposable dry cotton swabs have been used to dip in disinfectants for skin disinfection before injection. Nowadays, most hospitals use small bottles of iodophor and alcohol swabs, and dry cotton swabs are often used for subcutaneous injection, intramuscular injection and partial pressure when measuring blood glucose.

Topic 1

How long is the validity of the unsealed cotton swab?

From the answer of netizens' reply, there is no consistent answer, some refer to the internal medicine debridement kit requirements, the validity period is 4 hours, and the validity period is 24 hours after opening. But more are inclined to open after the validity of the 24-hour answer.

The author has consulted the health industry standards of the people's Republic of China since June 1, 2017

It is mentioned in the rules of "hospital infection management standards in ward" that:

Once opened, the use time of sterile cotton ball and gauze should not exceed 24 hours, and the use time of sterile holding forceps stored in dry cans should not exceed 4 hours.

Although the standard does not write a disposable sterile cotton swab, but the author consulted the hospital infection management department of the hospital, the disposable cotton swab after opening the invalid period is 24 hours. Of course, after each use, it should be sealed in time to maintain its airtightness.

Therefore, the author thinks that if there is no more prestigious standard for reference, the validity period of disposable cotton swab can be 24 hours as a standard.

Topic 2

Can the packing performance of cotton swabs be reasonable?

@Zyg1411: we use 50 cotton swabs, which are zipper type self sealing. You can open all the openings to get the cotton swabs. Ask, this kind of self sealing can meet the requirements of sterile materials? When holding the cotton swab, the hand will touch the top of several sticks to purify the inside of the bag.

The next time you take another cotton swab out, if the head of the cotton swab is stained with the cleaned stick or the inner surface of the purified packing bag, is it considered as purified?

Some teachers think that this cotton swab is used more in clinic, and it is stained with disinfectant. It doesn't matter. So I want to ask, what is this kind of cotton swab that can be turned over completely? Can it meet the requirements of medical cotton swabs?