The Principles of Medical Device Decontamination

Terminology and Definitions

The soiling or pollution of inanimate objects or living material with harmful, potentially infectious, or other unwanted material. In the clinical situation, this is most likely to be organic matter and infectious agents, but may also include other undesirable substances e.g. chemical residues, radioactive material, degradation products, packing materials etc. Such contamination may have an adverse effect on the function of a medical device and may be transferred to a person during use or subsequent use of subsequent processing of storage. A process which removes or destroys contamination so that infectious agents or other contaminants cannot reach a susceptible site in sufficient quantities to initiate infection, or other harmful response. Differing levels of decontamination are used depending on the device and the procedure involved. The levels of decontamination are: • Cleaning

Contamination

Decontamination

• Cleaning followed by disinfection • Cleaning followed by sterilisation

Chemical or combination of chemicals used for disinfection.

Disinfectant

Process to inactivate viable microorganisms to a level previously specified as being appropriate for a defined purpose.

Disinfection

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