Asepsis

Under asepsis ( Greek ; "sterility", literally, without rot ') is in the medicine understood the condition of sterility. With aseptic and aseptic measures microbial contamination of materials and wounds is prevented. The term asepsis must be differentiated from antisepsis , the measures of which cannot achieve complete sterility, as they fight microorganisms on or in living tissue (e.g. skin).

Aseptic measures

Measures for asepsis (aseptic caution) as an important prerequisite for avoiding nosocomial infections are above all:

• Aseptic working techniques: rules of conduct for wound care and invasive interventions that counteract the transmission of pathogens.
• Sterilization : All microorganisms from or on objects and in liquid materials are killed and removed or inactivated. In this way, reusable medical products (e.g. medical devices, instruments, protective clothing) are reprocessed for reuse after use and then packaged in a sterile manner . Physical methods are used for sterilization, after prior rough cleaning and disinfection with chemical biocides.
• Water sterilization: uses high-purity filtered water and adds hydrogen peroxide as a biocide to the rinsing solution in order to achieve chemical-physical and ultimately residue-free sterility after the final rinse. This is the state of the art modern drinks - bottling plants .
• Room disinfection : usually uses chemical biocides as an antiseptic preliminary process and additional physical processes. A room in which there are people cannot be sterilized, but it can be disinfected. Disinfection kills microorganisms or puts them in a state in which they can no longer infect. The physical processes support the aseptic initial state achieved.
• Room air sterilization, also known as “ laminar flow ”: means that the work area is flowed through with a laminar (eddy-free), top-down flow with physically sterile filtered air. This process does not remove any existing contamination from surfaces and it does not use biocides. It is intended to prevent new germs from entering the sterile area. Particles or germs that are thrown up are removed by the side-mounted, floor-level exhaust air systems (active suction). The people working in the laminar air flow wear closed, low-particle overalls and boots that are completely closed with the overalls, as well as hoods, mouth and nose protection and sterile disposable gloves. In special cases, the exhaled air can be continuously sucked out. This technology ensures the currently (2005) achievable maximum level of germ deficiency.

history

The introduction of the concept of asepsis is a major achievement of the German Ernst von Bergmann (1836–1907) and his colleague Curt Schimmelbusch .

Aseptic inflammation

The term “aseptic” is also used to characterize inflammatory and other diseases that are not caused by infection . Examples are aseptic bone necrosis ( Osgood-Schlatter disease ), enthesopathies such as epicondylitis humeri radialis (tennis elbow) and periarthritis humeroscapularis or aseptic meningitis , for example in terms of neoplastic meningiosis or triggered by certain drugs. The gout (gouty arthritis) - joint inflammation by deposition of uric acid crystals - one of the aseptic inflammation.

Aseptic wounds

A wound is referred to as aseptic if it is the result of a targeted invasive procedure and does not show any signs of inflammation. If one person changes a dressing for several patients, the patients are treated with aseptic wounds before those with contaminated or colonized wounds, and finally the patients with infected (septic) wounds. When treating the wound itself, every wound must be treated aseptically: with sterile materials and the no-touch technique .

literature

• FW Gierhake: Asepsis. In: Surgery historically: beginning - development - differentiation. Edited by FX Sailer and FW Gierhake, Dustri-Verlag, Deisenhofen near Munich 1973, ISBN 3-87185-021-7 , pp. 33-42.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fritz H. Kayser, Erik Christian Böttger, Otto Haller, Peter Deplazes, Axel Roers: Pocket Textbook Medical Microbiology. Georg Thieme Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-13-151443-1 , p. 82.
2. ↑ Bottling plants ( Memento of the original from November 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
3. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Asepsis. In: Werner E. Gerabek u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of medical history. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 111.
4. ^ UT Egle Sven, O. Hoffmann, KA Lehmann: Handbook Chronic Pain - Basics, Pathogenesis, Clinic and Therapy of Chronic Pain Symptoms from a Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective . 1st edition. Schattauer, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-7945-2045-9 , pp. 253 ff .
5. ↑ wound care. In: Nicole Menche (Ed.): Care Today. Elsevier, Urban & Fischer, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-437-28141-9 , p. 635.

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