General guidelines for performing high-level disinfection

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The disinfectants used for high-level disinfection should have ANMAT (National Administration of Medicines, Food and Technology–Argentina) authorization for commercialization (Provision 4324/00 or other provisions that are currently in effect).

The high level disinfectants that are currently used for medical use products are: glutaraldehyde, ortoftalaldehyde, formaldehyde and peracetic acid.

Independent of the product used, adequate monitoring of the critical parameters of the process should be carried out:

concentration of the disinfectant agent

temperature

exposure time

he validity date of the solution should also be controlled.

It is fundamental to confirm the physical and functional compatibility of the instrument with the disinfectant product, as stated in manufacturer instructions.

The ventilation conditions required in the work area should be respected in order to avoid the exposure of personnel to vapors in concentrations higher than the limits established by occupational health agencies. The disinfection area should have forced ventilation, broad work benches and two sinks for the washing and elimination of the disinfectant from the instruments through rinsing (Standards of the AAMI – Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, or other standards that are currently in effect). As was previously mentioned, the international tendency is to consider highlevel disinfection as part of a set of operations designed to guarantee the adequate reprocessing of medical products. As a result, the full treatment for complete high-level disinfection, including the stages prior to and following disinfection itself, should be understood as the following.

These stages are: