Decontamination of equipment, the environment and the skin Adam Fraise and Christina Bradley

The choice of method of decontamination (i.e. cleaning, disinfection or sterilization) depends on many factors, but the initial choice can be based on infection risks to patients. These can be classified as high, intermediate, low and minimal risks (Hoffman et al., 2004). However, there is an overlap between these categories and requirements for decontamination may vary within a category.