The same concepts described above are important for a dedicated area. Principles of Asepsis Asepsis is defined as preventing exposure to microorganisms and prevention of infection. Three things that are extremely important in achieving asepsis are the reduction of time, trauma and trash . Time of surgical procedure is an important factor, as the longer a procedure takes the greater the possibility of contamination and therefore infection. Trauma that is sustained by the tissue as a result of rough handling, drying out upon exposure to room air, excessive dead space, implants or foreign bodies or non-optimal temperatures will contribute to infections.
Trash refers to contamination by bacteria or foreign matter.
It may be possible to follow slightly different procedures for achieving asepsis when performing surgery on small patients such as rodents, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Typically, surgical times are short, incisions are small and the amount of tissue trauma is minimal. These all minimize the risk of infection. It is essential that anything that will contact the subcutaneous tissues of an animal be appropriately sterilized to prevent post-procedureal infections. These will be discussed below.