Staying up to date on disinfection and sterilization techniques: brush up on AORN's recommendations for perioperative practice.

Preventing infection in surgical patients begins with cleaning, disinfecting, and sterilizing the medical instruments used during surgical and nonsurgical procedures. An estimated 71.9 million procedures are performed each year in the United States, so processing the instruments correctly is essential to minimize infection risk. The Joint Commission considers the following as infection prevention and control activities: Cleaning and performing low-level disinfection of medical supplies and devices and performing intermediate- and high-level disinfection and sterilization of medical equipment, devices, and supplies. Ongoing education about disinfection and sterilization techniques will improve your understanding of the implications of improper instrument handling. This article reviews the AORN practice recommendations for disinfection and sterilization so that you can better care for your patients during the perioperative and intraoperative periods.