Dosimetry for quality assurance in electron-beam sterilization of medical devices.

During recent years, electron-beamed sterilization has quickly moved towards being able to compete with gamma-radiation sterilization, particularly now that several companies are offering high-power accelerators that can deliver electron beams with energies of 10 MeV; these beams are powerful enough to penetrate most medical devices. This article describes the role of dosimetry and the procedures used in the quality assurance and documentation required for electron-beam sterilization.