Aseptic technique is a set of routine measures that are taken to prevent cultures, sterile media stocks, and other solutions from being contaminated by unwanted microorganisms (i.e., sepsis).

Healthcare professionals use aseptic technique to protect patients from infection. Aseptic technique is a standard healthcare practice that helps prevent the transfer of germs to or from an open wound and other susceptible areas on a patient’s body.

There are two types of asepsis medical and surgical. practices that reduce the dumber, growth, transfer and spread of pathogenic microorganisms. They include hand washing, bathing, cleaning environment, gloving, gowning, wearing mask, hair and shoe covers, disinfecting articles and use of antiseptics.

Do not sneeze, cough, laugh, or talk over the sterile field. Maintain a safe space or margin of safety between sterile and non-sterile objects and areas. Refrain from reaching over the sterile field. Keep operating room (OR) traffic to a minimum, and keep doors closed.

Principles of Sterile Technique

• Face to face or back to back.
• Turn back to a non-sterile person or when passing.
• Face a sterile area when passing the area.
• Ask a non-sterile person to step aside rather than trying to crowd past him.
• Step back away from the sterile field to sneeze or cough.

Sterile Technique Used to Establish and Maintain Surgical Asepsis

• The sterile field is exposed to air for too long.
• The sterile field is coughed or sneezed upon, or excessive talking occurs over the sterile field.
• A sterile object drops below the waistline of the healthcare worker.

Definition of asepsis Asepsis is a condition in which no living disease-causing microorganisms are present. Asepsis covers all those procedures designed to reduce the risk of bacterial, fungal or viral contamination, using sterile instruments, sterile draping and the gloved ‘no touch’ technique.

Surgical asepsis is used for wound care, during all invasive procedures including surgical procedures and other invasive procedures such as endoscopy, for the administration of intravenous medications, for wound care, and for the insertion of an indwelling urinary catheter as well as other internally placed tubes like …

Aseptic means something has been made contamination-free, that it will not reproduce or create any kind of harmful living microorganisms (bacteria, viruses and others). In the sterilized technique, every bacteria, harmful or helpful, is meant to be destroyed.

To open a sterile pad or kit:

1. Wash your hands with soap and running water for at least 1 minute.
2. Use the special flap to pull back the paper wrapper of your pad or kit.
3. Pinch the other sections on the outside, and pull them back gently.
4. Throw the wrapper away.

Ultimately, the aim of a dressing is to promote healing of the wound by providing a sterile, breathable and moist environment that facilitates granulation and epithelialization. This will then reduce the risk of infection, help the wound heal more quickly, and reduce scarring.

Administration of contaminated intravenous medicines due to incorrect aseptic techniques has been a contributing factor to many of the patient deaths that have been reported. Healthcare-associated infections are a significant cause of harm to patients and add remarkably to the healthcare costs all over the world.

If aseptic techniques are not followed, cultures can become contaminated with non-targeted species of bacteria, causing researchers to study the wrong organism or forcing them to repeat the experiment.