Detection of ethylene oxide in medical equipment by headspace–trap with multi-step enrichment and GC–MS

This application note describes a fully automated method for detecting ethylene oxide (EtO) and 2-chloroethanol (2-CE) residues in medical equipment extracts using headspace–trap with multi-step enrichment (HS–trap with MSE) and GC–MS.

By extracting and combining multiple 5 mL headspace volumes in a single run on the Centri 90 platform, the method achieves sub-ppb detection limits (0.35 µg/L for EtO; 2.29 µg/L for 2-CE) with excellent linearity and reproducibility.

This high sensitivity, combined with automation, makes the approach ideally suited to routine regulatory testing of medical devices sterilised with EtO.