Can viable bacteria be present in the surface of ready-to-use surgical instruments?

biofilm is considered a challenge regarding treatment of chronic diseases and, after a detailed observation of cleaning and sterilization processes, it is considered could be a threat to sterility of surgical instruments that are "ready to use". Colored plastic bands (color coding tapes for marking surgical instruments) are frequently used to assist in the assembly of surgical instrument boxes. These bands form a lifting, which makes cleaning the material difficult. Epidemiological data regarding the frequency of surgical site infection in Brazil (up to 24% in Center-West Region) may be suggestive of contamination of operative instruments. The objective of this study is to answer the question: is there a risk of biofilm on ready-to-use surgical instruments?

narrative literature review.

296 articles were found and a total of 163 were selected for detailed reading, of which 78 were included. During the survey, four knowledge domains were outlined: microbiology, pathophysiology/epidemiology, technology and management. This review pointed out the risk of the bacterial load prior to autoclaving, the efficiency of the sterilization method regarding the presence of microscopic soils and, under current conditions, the ability of the Material and Sterilization Centers to ensure adequate cleaning.

after working extensively to associate all the collected information, there is a considerable probability of bacterial biofilms in ready-to-use surgical instruments and, therefore further research in this field of microbiology is justified, with an emphasis on improving process quality indicators, giving the potential impact on reduction of surgical site infection rates.