Patent ID: 8318059

Claim:
A method for sterilizing a medical device having a core material and/or a coating, wherein the core material and the coating, independently of each other, are made of a poly(oxyalkylene)-containing polymeric material, the method comprising: autoclaving the medical device in a solution containing from 10 to 300 millimolar of citric acid or biocompatible salt thereof while decreasing susceptibility to oxidative degradation of the poly(oxyalkylene)-containing polymeric material as characterized by having at least an 1.5-fold reduction of the amount of detectable formic acid and optionally other degradation by-products derived from oxidative degradation of the poly(oxyalkylene)-containing polymeric material relative to that for the poly(oxyalkylene)-containing polymeric material without citric acid or biocompatible salt thereof, wherein the biocompatible salt of citric acid is a sodium, potassium, or ammonium salt.