Certified Instrument Specialist (CIS) Practice Exam 2026 – The All-in-One Guide to Achieving Certification Success!

High-level disinfection is a critical process applied to medical devices that come into contact with non-intact skin or mucous membranes. This type of disinfection is necessary to eliminate all microorganisms, except large numbers of bacterial spores, from items that may encounter compromised skin or potentially break the dermal barrier.

Devices subject to high-level disinfection include those that might touch broken skin or mucous membranes, which is why option B is accurately identified as the correct answer. For instance, surgical instruments and endoscopes often require high-level disinfection due to their high-risk nature in clinical settings.

In contrast, items that come into contact with contaminated surfaces or environmental surfaces do not typically require as stringent a level of disinfection, as these categories are usually addressed with lower-level disinfection methods. Similarly, blood pressure cuffs, although they can be contaminated, typically do not need high-level disinfection; they rather fall under the category of items that can be cleaned with lower-level protocols due to the type of contact they have with the skin, which is generally intact. Therefore, focusing on the requirement based on the level of skin integrity is key in understanding why high-level disinfection is mandated for devices interacting with non-intact skin.