This webinar is designed to acquaint those in the medical device community with the appropriate ways to develop, optimize, and validate an ethylene oxide sterilization process. The properties and hazards associated with ethylene oxide and the process required to successfully validate a medical device will also be discussed. The validation methods used are outlined in ANSI/AAMI/ISO 11135-1:2007. Some of the related testing includes comparative resistance, bioburden resistance, bioburden enumeration, sterility testing, sterilant gas residues, and temperature/humidity distribution studies. In addition, the batch release method will be outlined. This process allows the manufacturer to sterilize a single lot of product for use in clinical trials or animal studies where large numbers of samples are not available. This provides a rapid and cost effective way to provide sterile product without undergoing the full validation process.