In: Nursing
All invasive surgeries include contact between a surgical instrument or medical device and a patient's sterile tissue. A major risk of all such procedures is that the introduction of pathogenic microbes that would cause infection. Failure to properly disinfect or sterilize reusable medical equipment carries a risk related to complications. The extent of disinfection or sterilization relies on the use of the object: critical items, semicritical items, and noncritical items require sterilization, high-level disinfection, and low-level disinfection, respectively.
Cleaning must always begin with strict disinfection and sterilization. Following the guidelines should improve sterilization practices in health care facilities, thereby decreasing infections and risks associated with contaminated patient-care