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High-Level Disinfection or “Sterilization” of Endoscopes?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Lawrence Freed Muscarella
Lawrence Freed Muscarella*
Affiliation:
Custom Ultrasonics, Inc, Buckingham, Pennsylvania
*
Director of Research and Development, Custom Ultrasonics, Inc, PO Box 850, Buckingham, PA 18912
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Abstract

Controversy has surrounded the use of liquid chemical germicides to reprocess medical instruments that are damaged by heat sterilization. A review of the literature was performed to assess and compare the efficacy of disinfection and sterilization processes. The results of this review demonstrate that high-level disinfection of thoroughly cleaned endoscopes is not associated with a higher infection rate than is “sterilization.” While there may be a theoretical distinction between the highest level of disinfection and sterilization, thorough cleaning eliminates clinical differences between the two. High-level disinfection is quick, effective, inexpensive, and recommended whenever heat sterilization is not feasible. A low-temperature sterilization process should be considered only if it is comparable in cost to disinfection or if it offers demonstrated advantages without damaging the instrument. Neither disinfection nor sterilization is likely to be effective if the instrument is not cleaned thoroughly after use.

Type
Readers' Forum
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , March 1996 , pp. 183 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1996

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