an expensive proposition, especially when you need loaners to sustain
your volume, but early in the study, damage was seen inside scopes
that had been used for as little as 2 months.
• Mystery fluid. Though it wasn't part of the original study design,
another finding aroused concern and curiosity. Early on during the
study, after residual fluid was found in several endoscopes, the
researchers ramped up the AER drying cycle by putting more alcohol
through the scopes and increasing the air-purge cycle from 1 minute
to 6 minutes. The scopes were hung vertically in closed, ventilated
cabinets to dry.
At the final assessment, several scopes contained visible droplets of
a cloudy fluid. It didn't appear to be water or alcohol, which left a vari-
ety of sobering possibilities. Lab tests eventually identified the mystery
fluid as simethicone,
which is often injected
into scopes to reduce
bubbles and improve
visibility during colono-
scopies and other pro-
cedures.
That's a concern,
because simethicone
isn't water soluble; it
actually repels water.
But it does love to stick
to any other surface,
such as the inside of a
scope, where it may
actually form a protec-
tive barrier between
2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A y 2 0 1 8
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s 2ETROFIT YOUR CURRENT CABINET OR CLOSET
s )NBETWEEN PROCEDURES OVERNIGHT PROCESSING
s #ONTINUOUS PROCESSING WITH (%0!FILTERED AIR
THROUGH ALL INTERNAL CHANNELS
s $RIES TO ENDOSCOPES
s 0ROVIDES (%0!FILTERED AIR WITH
#ONSTANT &LOW
#ONSISTENT 0RESSURE
.%7
#ONVERT YOUR EXISTING SCOPE CABINET INTO AN
AUTOMATIC SCOPE DRYING SYSTEM
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www.driscope.com
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