Aseptic technique
Say it: ay-SEP-tik tek-NEEK
Aseptic technique is the set of practices that keeps microbes from contaminating sterile materials, cultures or a patient's tissues during a procedure.
Also: sterile technique
Definition
What is aseptic technique?
Aseptic technique is a collection of working habits that stops unwanted microbes from reaching places where they must not be: a sterile growth medium, a pure culture of a single organism, an intravenous line or an open surgical wound. It does not sterilize anything itself; it starts with sterilized items and handles them so that they stay that way.
In a microbiology lab, it means disinfecting the bench, opening tubes, bottles and Petri dishes as briefly as possible, heating the wire loop until it glows red before and after every transfer, flaming the necks of tubes, and working close to a Bunsen burner, whose rising hot air carries floating particles away, or inside a biological safety cabinet. These habits also protect the worker from the organisms being grown, and without them stray microbes overgrow plates and spoil results.
In clinical care, aseptic technique combines hand hygiene and the surgical scrub, sterile gowns, gloves and drapes, antiseptic preparation of the skin, and a sterile field that nothing unsterile may touch. It is used in operating rooms and for bedside procedures such as inserting catheters or changing dressings, and it is a main defense against surgical site infections. It grew out of the antiseptic surgery introduced by Joseph Lister in the 1860s.
Word parts
Where does the term “aseptic technique” come from?
- a-
- withoutGreek a-
- sept-
- rotten, putrefyingGreek septikos, from sepein, to rot
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Terms that go with it
- SterilizationIn microbiology, sterilization is any process that kills or removes all microbial life, including bacterial endospores and viruses, from an object.
- AgarAgar is a jelly-forming polysaccharide extracted from red seaweeds, used above all to solidify culture media for growing microorganisms.
- PathogenA pathogen is a microbe or other agent, such as a virus, bacterium, fungus, parasite or prion, that can cause disease in a host.
- SepsisSepsis is a life-threatening emergency in which the body's reaction to infection runs out of control and damages its own tissues and organs.
- BacteriumA bacterium is a single-celled prokaryote with no nucleus, found in almost every habitat on Earth, including in and on the human body.
- Staphylococcus aureusStaphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive bacterium, carried in the nose by about a third of people, that causes skin and invasive infections.
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Checked against
Written for biofideX in plain words, after checking these references:
- OpenStax Microbiology, 13.1 Controlling Microbial Growth
- Practical Biology: Aseptic techniques
- EBSCO Research Starters: Aseptic technique
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