AORN 2025 Recommendations for Lead Apron Cleaning and Disinfection
AORN recently released its 2025 guidelines for perioperative practice. The new guidelines include recommendations for surgical procedures and protective garments that shield against radiation, such as thyroid shields and lead aprons.
One of the key sections in the update was AORN’s current recommendations for lead apron and thyroid shield cleaning and disinfection. What does AORN recommend, and how can you ensure top staff and patient safety when wearing protective garments? We’ll cover it all here to help your medical facility make educated choices.
How Often Should Lead Aprons Be Cleaned?
Governing bodies recommend quarterly deep cleaning and disinfection for high-touch objects in medical environments. Ensuring proper infection prevention measures in clinical settings is essential to maintaining patient and staff safety.
The new guidelines from AORN in 2025 stress how quickly garments, like lead aprons and thyroid shields, can become contaminated. They state that aprons, vests, skirts, and thyroid shields have the highest contamination rates, between 62.5% and 100%.
AORN also mentioned that many of the current cleaning practices used in facilities are inconsistent or inadequate, which is leading to much higher contamination rates.
That statement aligns with what other sources on the subject have said. For instance, Dr. Kathleen Jones explained that when facilities only use wipes and sprays that don't fully remove dirt, debris, and microorganisms, they leave behind bacteria that can multiply and regrow.
Therefore, detailed quarterly cleanings and disinfection are necessary to remove tough biofilms on the garment’s surface. Authorities like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have mentioned that biofilms are a leading risk of hospital-acquired infections. The NIH disclosed that 80% of chronic infections and 65% of microbial infections are associated with biofilms.
AORN Also Recommends Daily Wipe-Downs
AORN’s 2025 guidelines also made further recommendations for thyroid shield and lead apron cleaning frequency. They recommended that protective garments should be cleaned and disinfected before and after each use to ensure proper infection control.
We recommend using Ecolab Quaternary-Based Wipes or Clorox Hydrogen Peroxide Wipes for this practice. Both use a disposable microfiber cloth that applies friction without damaging the garment’s surface. It aligns with the CDC’s guidelines, which state that friction is necessary to physically remove dirt, germs, and microorganisms.
However, it’s important to note that daily wipe-downs don’t replace quarterly deep cleaning. Even the best wipes only remove a portion of biofilms. Therefore, they can slow the growth of dangerous microorganisms, but you need more thorough practices to remove them completely.
What Are the Rules for AORN Cleaning?
To sum up AORN’s radiation protective garment cleaning and disinfection recommendation in 2025:
Disinfection should be performed before each use
AORN recommends educating perioperative personnel on proper cleaning practices to ensure adherence to high cleaning standards.
What Are the Recommendations for Lead Aprons?
Lead apron use is a big part of AORN’s recommendations for staff and patient safety.
AORN recommends wearing lead aprons to shield crucial organs during high-dose procedures like C-arm-guided fluoroscopy. They state that the average C-arm emits a radiation dose of 2 rem per minute, which becomes dangerous with ongoing exposure.
AORN also recommends taking other precautions like minimizing time spent near the radiation source and remaining a safe distance (approximately 6 feet) from the radiation source when possible.
However, surgical procedures with clinicians operating right next to the C-arm can make it hard to stay a safe distance away, so proper shielding is essential.
How to Disinfect a Lead Apron
Our team at Radiological Care Services (RCS) applies a detailed process to lead apron disinfection to ensure thorough biofilm removal. The deep cleaning steps go as follows:
Pre-service evaluation: We identify areas requiring extra attention.
Two-step cleaning and sanitization process: We use a thorough two-step process for cleaning and disinfection. First, we apply an EPA-approved cleaning product using friction to remove biofilms, which is in line with CDC recommendations. Then, we finish by applying a sanitizing agent that removes 99.9% of microorganisms from the garment’s surface.
Post-service: After cleaning, we perform a follow-up ATP swab test to ensure no contaminants remain on the garment’s surface. The results are then logged in our RADCOMPLY™ software, so you have the information available for compliance and audits.
How RCS Can Help Meet AORN’s Protective Garment Cleaning Guidelines
RCS provides routine cleaning and disinfection to help remove harmful biofilms from the surface of radiation-protective garments like lead aprons and thyroid shields. Our services follow recommendations from governing bodies like the CDC and AORN to help you keep your staff and patients safe.
In addition to deep cleaning and disinfection, we also help with:
Contact us today to learn more about how RCS can help.