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M AY 2 0 1 4 | S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
a run through an automatic reproces-
sor. But recent studies have shown
that more attention must be paid to
the small details of the process in
order to prevent bacteria from form-
ing in complex devices that are
already exceedingly difficult to clean
and disinfect.
Biofilm buildup
A study in BMC Gastroenterology
(
tinyurl.com/pdff7f2)
points out the
channels of endoscopes can be "heavi-
ly contaminated" with bacteria, even
after high-level disinfection is per-
formed. The researchers tested the
efficacy of manual brushing and auto-
matic endoscope reprocessors (AERs)
in disinfecting biopsy channels by col-
lecting 420 samples of sterile distilled
water flushed through channels of
gastroscopes and colonoscopes and
swabbing residual water from AERs
after full reprocessing cycles were
run.
According to the study, 13.6% of the
biopsy channel samples and 1.7% of
AER samples were culture-positive.
Specifically, 10.7% of the 300 samples
taken from gastroscopes and 20.8% of
the 120 samples taken from colono-
scopes were culture-positive; both
were significantly higher than the pos-
itive cultures obtained from the AERs
used to reprocess them: 2% and 0.8%,
respectively.
The researchers say endoscopes are
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