Clean room performance testing in hospital's vascular interventional radiology laboratory

Abstract

A Vascular Interventional Radiology (VIR) laboratory is a hospital facility that requires clean room standards to reduce infection risks. In the VIR laboratory, laparoscopic surgery, known as minimally invasive surgery, is performed with the use of video imaging. This article describes a standard practice of conducting field measurements in an ISO Class 8 VIR laboratory. The measurements were carried out at rest conditions as described in ISO 14644-1 standard. The lab was equipped with High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, and a vertically downward unidirectional flow system. A TSI 9310-02 airborne particle counter was used to measure three different particle sizes, namely, PM 0.5, PM 1.0 and PM 5.0. Meanwhile, an Alnor EBT 731 manometer was utilised to measure the average airflow velocity and pressure differential. On average, the recorded values of PM 0.5, PM 1.0 and PM 5.0 concentrations are 923351 particles/m3, 56963 particles/m3, and 551 particles/m3, respectively. While, the average measured values of supply air velocity, pressure differential, air temperature and relative humidity are 0.43 m/s, +0.79 Pa, 20.5ºC, and 63.3% respectively. This study shows that all the measured parameters are within the threshold values prescribed in the ISO Class 8 standard.