These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed


  • Title: Disinfection, sterilization, and antisepsis: An overview.
    Author: Rutala WA, Weber DJ.
    Journal: Am J Infect Control; 2016 May 02; 44(5 Suppl):e1-6. PubMed ID: 27131128.
    Abstract:
    All invasive procedures involve contact by a medical device or surgical instrument with a patient's sterile tissue or mucous membranes. The level of disinfection or sterilization is dependent on the intended use of the object: critical (items that contact sterile tissue such as surgical instruments), semicritical (items that contact mucous membrane such as endoscopes), and noncritical (devices that contact only intact skin such as stethoscopes) items require sterilization, high-level disinfection and low-level disinfection, respectively. Cleaning must always precede high-level disinfection and sterilization. Antiseptics are essential to infection prevention as part of a hand hygiene program as well as several other uses such as surgical hand antisepsis and pre-operative skin preparation.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]