CDC Sterilization Standards

The Centers for Disease Control, or CDC, regulates how medical offices and hospitals sterilize medical devices and tools. Sterilization removes harmful bacteria and pathogens from a device, allowing it to be used for other purposes or for proper disposal.

Guidelines

• The CDC recommends only a few processes to sterilize medical devices and equipment. Pressurized steam, hydrogen peroxide, ethylene oxide, and dry heating are just some of the preferred CDC guidelines for sterilization.

Preferred Method

• Steamed heat is preferred in most sterilization processes since it does not line the equipment with chemicals. Objects such as surgical equipment, catheters and ultrasound probes are steamed for sterilization. Equipment such as respiratory devices and endoscopes need chemical sterilization since these equipment products contain mucous and tissue after their removal from a patient.

Noncritical Items

• Noncritical items must be sterilized in order to retain public health safety. Medical equipment such as clothing, even if it is thrown away afterward, needs to be washed in a chemical bath. Other examples of noncritical medical items which must be sterilized include crutches, computers used by the patient during a hospital stay, utensils, bed pans, and blood pressure cuffs.