Objective To analyze the difficulties in the cleaning of loaner luminal spinal surgical instruments, and provide basis for improving and perfecting the cleaning quality control system. Methods 291 loaner luminal spinal instruments in a hospital were selected, and the endoscopic lumen inspection system was used to check the cleaning quality of lumen of instruments when they were received and after manual cleaning, statistical analysis was performed. Results The contamination rates of contaminants were 89.69% and 59.45% at receiving time and after cleaning of luminal instruments, the main contaminants were tissue, stain and rust. Instruments with blind ends were more difficult to be cleaned than those with openings at both ends, there were significant differences in tissue and stain removal rates between two groups (both P < 0.05). Conclusion It is difficult to clean the loaner luminal spinal surgical instruments, so the cleaning process should be optimized and cleaning quality of inner surface of lumen should be included in the assessment system.