Asepsis

Hand scrubbing procedure for surgery

Asepsis is the state of being free from disease-causing micro-organisms (such as pathogenic bacteria, viruses, pathogenic fungi, and parasites).[1] There are two categories of asepsis: medical and surgical.[1] The modern day notion of asepsis is derived from the older antiseptic techniques, a shift initiated by different individuals in the 19th century who introduced practices such as the sterilizing of surgical tools and the wearing of surgical gloves during operations.[2] The goal of asepsis is to eliminate infection, not to achieve sterility.[1] Ideally, a surgical field is sterile, meaning it is free of all biological contaminants (e.g. fungi, bacteria, viruses), not just those that can cause disease, putrefaction, or fermentation.[1] Even in an aseptic state, a condition of sterile inflammation may develop. The term often refers to those practices used to promote or induce asepsis in an operative field of surgery or medicine to prevent infection.[3]

  1. ^ a b c d Burke, Alene. "Standard Precautions, Transmission Based, Surgical Asepsis: NCLEX-RN || RegisteredNursing.org". www.registerednursing.org. Retrieved 2020-04-21.
  2. ^ Markel, Howard. An anatomy of addiction. New York: Pantheon Books.
  3. ^ Chen, Grace Y.; Nuñez, Gabriel (19 November 2010). "Sterile inflammation: sensing and reacting to damage". Nature Reviews. Immunology. 10 (12): 826–837. doi:10.1038/nri2873. ISSN 1474-1733. PMC 3114424. PMID 21088683.