DOI: https://doi.org/10.36347/sajp.2026.v15i05.001

Pages: 111-124

Sterile compresses occupy a very important place in the hospital setting, particularly in operating rooms. They are necessary for performing any surgical procedure, regardless of its nature, and they are obligatorily used for cleaning and disinfecting surgical wounds. In the hospital, compresses are purchased from the supplier either as ready-to-use sterile packs or as non-sterile bulk products to be sterilized by the central sterilization department. In this work, we aimed to carry out a comparative pharmaco-economic study as a decision-support tool for healthcare institutions, capable of providing quantified economic data in order to rationalize the choice between purchasing sterile compresses and sterilizing clean compresses in the hospital. Our study showed that the strategy of sterilizing surgical compresses in the hospital is the most economical strategy for healthcare institutions. We found that the acquisition price of one sterile surgical compress is 3.74 MAD, whereas the sterilization cost of a surgical compress with the same characteristics is 0.29 MAD. This therefore represents a saving of 3.45 MAD per unit, i.e. a saving of 92.25% of the amount. Annually, the HMIMV-Rabat sterilization department sterilizes approximately 1,300,000 compresses, corresponding to a saving of 4,485,000.00 MAD/year.