If surgical instruments are placed into the disposal container and are not immediately reprocessed, long drying-on times can occur. These do not only make the subsequent cleaning more difficult but can also lead to pitting corrosion. This tutorial shows how pitting corrosion caused by chloride-containing solutions, such as blood or physiological saline solution, can be avoided in order to prevent irreparable damage to steel surfaces of surgical instruments, incl. MIS instruments and to ensure the value preservation of the instruments.