A history of isolator and containment technology Part 2: Flexible film isolators
Abstract
This is the second of five papers that will describe the history and development of isolator and containment technology in the fields of research, medicine and pharmaceutical applications. The paper commences with the development of flexible film isolators based on designs similar to Trexler’s later models and the expansion of the use of such isolator designs by the pharmaceutical industry into sterility testing, aseptic processing and, in containment format, for compounding hazardous products. Hospital pharmacies also picked up the technology for dispensing.
Flexible film isolators
With the introduction of flexible film isolators by Trexler in the USA, and the UK interest in such isolators, the
technology developed further. In the USA a small number of companies produced similar Trexler isolators for
gnotobiotic animal rearing and research, but at that time there was a limited market and the number of manufacturers dwindled down to two or three. One of these was Standard Safety Inc. However there was much interest in using isolators for developing biological warfare agents and the business expanded in that direction in both the USA and the UK.
La Calhene (now Getinge- La Calhene) in France also developed flexible film isolators for germ-free rodent breeders for animal research. These were similar in design to the Standard Safety models from the USA. Another application for flexible film isolators at that time was for surgical procedures such as hip joint replacement. The unit had several glove ports and an RTP.
The flexible floor of the isolator had an adhesive outside surface (suitably protected before use.) The isolator was placed over the operation area of the patient, the protective sheet was removed from the adhesive and the floor of the isolator was fixed to the skin of the patient over a fairly large area. […]
A courtesy of ‘Clean Air & Containment Review’ – www.cleanairandcontainment.com
- author: Thorogood Doug
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