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, William A. Rutala Hospital Epidemiology, University of North Carolina Health Care System, and Division of Infectious Diseases, University of North Carolina School of Medicine , Chapel Hill Reprints or correspondence: Dr. William A. Rutala, Div. of Infectious Diseases, 130 Mason Farm Rd., Bioinformatics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7030 (brutala@unch.unc.edu). Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic David J. Weber Hospital Epidemiology, University of North Carolina Health Care System, and Division of Infectious Diseases, University of North Carolina School of Medicine , Chapel Hill Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic
Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 39, Issue 5, 1 September 2004, Pages 702–709, https://doi.org/10.1086/423182
Published:
01 September 2004
Article history
Received:
15 March 2004
Accepted:
05 May 2004
Published:
01 September 2004
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William A. Rutala, David J. Weber, Disinfection and Sterilization in Health Care Facilities: What Clinicians Need to Know, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 39, Issue 5, 1 September 2004, Pages 702–709, https://doi.org/10.1086/423182
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Abstract
All invasive procedures involve contact between a medical device or surgical instrument and a patient's sterile tissue or mucous membranes. A major risk of all such procedures is the introduction of pathogenic microbes that could lead to infection. Failure to properly disinfect or sterilize reusable medical equipment carries a risk associated with breach of the host barriers. The level of disinfection or sterilization is dependent on the intended use of the object: critical items (such as surgical instruments, which contact sterile tissue), semicritical items (such as endoscopes, which contact mucous membranes), and noncritical items (such as stethoscopes, which contact only intact skin) require sterilization, high-level disinfection, and low-level disinfection, respectively. Cleaning must always precede high-level disinfection and sterilization. Users must consider the advantages and disadvantages of specific methods when choosing a disinfection or sterilization process. Adherence to these recommendations should improve disinfection and sterilization practices in health care facilities, thereby reducing infections associated with contaminated patient-care items.
© 2004 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America
Topic:
- disinfection
- endoscopes
- patient care
- surgical procedures, operative
- infections
- mucous membrane
- medical devices
- microorganisms
Issue Section:
Healthcare Epidemiology > Invited Article
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