This appendix includes definitions, tables of information, and references as a resource for investigators. Surgery performed using procedures that limit microbial contamination so that significant infection or suppuration does not occur. Any surgical intervention that neither penetrates and exposes a body cavity nor produces permanent impairment of physical or physiologic function.
Examples are superficial vascular cutdown, and percutaneous biopsy.
The process whereby all viable microorganism are eliminated or destroyed. The criterion of sterilization is the failure of organisms to grow if a growth supporting medium is supplied. The chemical or physical process that involves the destruction of pathogenic organisms. All disinfectants are effective against vegetative forms of organisms, but not necessarily spores.