The LSUHSC New Orleans Emergency Medicine Interest Group Presents The Student Procedure Manual

Basic Aseptic Technique

Purposes and Principles

The basic principles and practices of aseptic technique are a guide to establishing and maintaining a sterile field. Anyone who is present in the operating room has a responsibility to maintain a safe environment for the patient. Aseptic practices are implemented preoperatively, intraoperatively, and postoperatively to minimize wound contamination.

• Scrubbed persons should wear sterile gowns and gloves.
  • The gown worn by the scrubbed person should be considered sterile in front from the chest to the level of sterile field.
  • The sleeves should be considered sterile from 2 inches above the elbow to the stockinette cuff.
  • Self-gowning and gloving of the scrubbed persons should be performed from a separate sterile surface to avoid contamination of water dripping onto the sterile field.
• Establish a sterile field with sterile drapes.
  • Hold the draping material above waist level, in a compact position, draping from operative site to periphery.
    
  • Protect gloved hands by cuffing draping material over the hands.
    
  • Do not flip, fan, or shake drapes. Rapid movement of drapes creates air currents on which dust, lint, and droplet nuclei can migrate.
    
• All items used within a sterile field should be sterile. Before dispensing a sterile item to the sterile field, the unscrubbed person should check the package integrity, chemical process indicator, and, if present, expiration date.
  
• Dispense all items introduced into a sterile field by methods that maintain sterility of the item and integrity of the sterile field.
  
• A sterile field should be constantly monitored and maintained.
  
  • Every team member should observe for events that may compromise the sterile field and initiate corrective action.
    
  • Conversation should be minimal in the operating room.
    
  • All personnel moving within or around a sterile field should do so in a manner to maintain the integrity of the sterile field.
    
    • Scrubbed persons should keep arms and hands within the parameters of sterile field at all times.
    • Scrubbed surgical team members should move from sterile to sterile areas. If they must change position, they should turn back to back or face while maintaining a safe distance between each other and avoid traffic pathways.
      
    • Scrubbed persons should stay close to the sterile field and should not leave room.
      
    • Unscrubbed surgical team members should move from unsterile to unsterile areas, maintaining awareness of the need for distance from the sterile field.
      
    • Unscrubbed persons should always approach sterile areas facing them and should not walk between two sterile fields.
      
    • Sterile dressing material should be applied before surgical drapes are removed to avoid contamination of the incision.