Cleaning and disinfection is a combined process to decontaminate a comprehensive range of instruments in surgical and non-surgical procedures. Instrument disinfection serves in processing reusable medical instruments and provides patient safety through effective germ reduction.

Vendors who fall into this category receive high scores for most of the evaluation criteria. They have strong and established product portfolios and a very strong market presence. They provide mature and reputable data integration tools and have strong business strategies.

They are established vendors with very strong business strategies. However, they offer less products in the market. They focus on a specific type of technology related to the product.

Innovators are the vendors who have demonstrated substantial product innovations as compared to their competitors. They have very focused product portfolios. However, they do not have very strong growth strategies for their overall businesses.

The emerging players specialize in offering highly niche solutions and services. They do not have strong business strategies as compared to the established vendors. The global instrument cleaning and disinfection market, by application, is segmented into surgical instruments, endoscopes, ultrasound probes, and other instruments (stethoscopes, clinical thermometers, ultrasound probes, oximeter sensors, cuffs, dialysis sets, electrodes, cables, columns, curves, electrodes and hemodialysis blood circuits, among others). Cleaning and disinfection of surgical instruments (scissors, forceps, extractors, scalpels, knives, laparoscopic instruments, and microsurgical instruments, among others) is crucial to avoid microbial contamination and HAI transmission within the hospital. A number of enzymatic cleaning detergents and disinfectants are used for the decontamination of surgical instruments, depending on their complexity. An endoscope is a non-surgical instrument used to examine the internal organs and vessels of the body, especially to view the digestive tract. Hence, their invasive nature can allow the entry of bacteria into the body, unless they are cleaned, disinfected, and sterilized prior to reuse. Adequate reprocessing is critically important to reduce the burden of HAIs. Enzymatic detergents and disinfectants are primarily used for cleaning and disinfecting endoscopes. Ultrasound probes are one of the most important and expensive elements of an ultrasound scanner. The performance and imaging quality of ultrasonic scanners are highly affected by the characteristics, structure, and maintenance of the probe. Hence, ultrasound probes require proper care, cleaning, and handling. The cleaning and disinfection of ultrasound probes can be done either manually or through the automatic cleaning process. Manual cleaning is an essential prerequisite for the effective disinfection of probes. High-level disinfection involves soaking the probe in a high-level disinfectant, hydrogen peroxide gas plasma, or vaporized hydrogen peroxide. Stethoscopes, clinical thermometers, ultrasound probes, oximeter sensors, cuffs, dialysis sets, electrodes, cables, columns, curves, and electrodes and hemodialysis blood circuits, among others, fall under this segment. These instruments are decontaminated either by manual or automated methods.