[Reference and selective list in hospital hygiene. Impact on practical improvement].

In hospitals, the infection control programs requires a basic policy on selection and use of appropriate antibiotics, as well as antiseptics and disinfectants. The selective list concept, born in Germany, spread in France during the nineties, essentially based on national microbiological standards. With the European free circulation of products, more antiseptics and disinfectants with heterogeneous status are available to customers, who must settle on the essential data, with the help of scientific societies: among these data, efficacy against multiresistant strains, adaptation to specific hospital patients, ergonomic handling and tolerance today precede economical criteria and supplement the European micro-biological standards for antiseptics and disinfectants.