Surgical soil is complex and challenging to clean. A brush’s best performance is supported by a well-trained technician, a manual cleaning policy, and a formulated detergent that works best to break down surgical soil at the sink. There are very few steps within the reprocessing cycle of an instrument that a technician can save time during the many automated processes, but the sink is one area that you can optimize every minute. Detergents with multi-enzymatic formulations combined with surfactants and emulsifiers aid in the separation of surgical soils from the surface of the instruments and assisting the manual cleaning process at the sink. Enzymes are substrate specific, meaning that they target specific types of materials based on their structure. It is Important to utilize a multi-enzymatic cleaning detergent because surgical soil is a complex mixture of many different materials such as blood, tissues, and subcutaneous fat. Multi-enzymatic cleaning detergents are the best solution for breaking down each of the different components of surgical soil. Appropriate cleaning chemistry selection, proper detergent solution concentration, and utilizing cleaning brush best practices at the sink will set you and your team up for success and promote maximum manual cleaning efficiency!