A journey of a lifetime: Fifty years of advancements in disinfection and sterilization practices in health care.

BACKGROUND

Each year in the United States, there are >100,000,000 invasive procedures. All invasive procedures involve contact by a medical device or surgical instrument with a patient's sterile tissue or mucous membranes. A major risk of such procedures is the introduction of infection.

METHODS

Personal experience supplemented by the published literature were utilized to identify advancements in disinfection and sterilization from 1975 to 2025.

RESULTS

Many advancements (eg, new evidence-based guidelines, new sterilization technology and sterilization monitoring, new disinfectants, and environmental control methods) and some challenges (eg, endoscope sterilization, cleaning monitoring, biofilms, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease) remain in disinfection and sterilization in health care.

CONCLUSIONS

The advancements in disinfection and sterilization will eliminate or reduce most disease-causing microorganisms on surfaces and ensure medical and surgical equipment are completely safe. When faithfully implemented, these improvements will prevent health care-associated infections.