HOT AIR OVEN

Prepared by Reviewed by
Mr. SHUHAIB P PPT Review
Assistant Professor Committee,
Department of MLT YSAHS

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 SPECIFIC LEARNING OBJECTIEVES
At the end of the session, the students will be able to understand:

• Principle and working

• Holding time and temperature

• Materials sterilized and Preclusions

• Advantages and disadvantages

• Sterilization control
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PRINCIPLE
PRINCIPLE - Conduction
Heat absorbed by the surface of the
item to be sterilized, penetrates to
the centre, until entire item reaches
desired temperature.

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WORKING
• Electrically heated.
• Fitted with fan, ensuring adequate
and even distribution of hot air in
the chamber.
• also fitted with a thermostat,
which maintains chamber air at
chosen temperature.
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HOLDING TEMPERATURE AND TIME
160oC for 2 hours
170oC for 1 hour
180oC for 30 min

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MATERIALS STERILIZED
• Glassware like glass syringes, Petri
dishes, flasks, pipettes and test tubes
• Surgical instruments like scalpels,
forceps, etc
• Chemicals like liquid paraffin, fats,
glycerol, oil, glove powder, etc.

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PRECAUTIONS
✔ Avoid overloading
✔ Arrange materials so as to allow free air circulation
✔ Materials should be dry before placing in the oven
✔ Mouths of test tubes and flasks should be cotton plugged
✔ Materials should be paper wrapped

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✔ Inflammable materials like rubber (except :silicone rubber)
should not be kept inside the oven
✔ Oven must be allowed to cool slowly 2hrs. prior to opening
✔ In high temperature, cotton plugs may get charred

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 ADVANTAGES
✔ High temperature can be reached.
✔ Does not leave any chemical residue.
✔ Non toxic and does not harm environment.
✔ kills bacterial endotoxins.

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 DISADVANTAGES
✔ Heat-sensitive materials cannot be sterilized.
✔ Time- consuming

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STERILIZATION CONTROL
❖ PHYSICAL CONTROL
▪ Thermocouples

❖ CHEMICAL CONTROL
▪ Browne's tube

❖ BIOLOGICAL CONTROLS
▪ Spores (106) of Bacillus atrophaeus
▪ non-toxigenic strains of Clostridium tetani
▪ Bacillus subtilis subsp. niger

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 SUMMARY
• Hot-air oven is a dry heat sterilization method
• Temperature and time period for hot-air oven is 160°Cfor two hours
(holding time)

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IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
• Hot air oven
• Classify sterilization and write a note on hot air oven

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REFERENCES
• Sastry AS, Bhat S. Essentials of medical microbiology. JP Medical
Ltd; 2018 Oct 31.
• Baveja CP. Textbook of microbiology. Arya Publications; 2019

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