COMMENTARY
See article on page 304
Coming clean on reuse of endoscopic equipment
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Over the past decade, endoscopic accessories have
evolved from reusable to disposable in many parts of the world. The
impetus for this has been multifactorial and includes concerns of
cross-contamination between patients because of inability to assure
proper cleaning and the inevitable equipment deterioration that occurs
with reuse.1 A contrasting and more cynical view has been
espoused, however, that marketing items as "one-time-use" precludes
the need for manufacturers to undertake microbiological studies after
reprocessing. Moreover, its implementation has been associated with a
dramatic increase in the purchase of accessories such as needle
injectors, sphincterotomes, and even biopsy forceps.2
Within the United States, several factors came together to reinforce
this "use and dispose" mentality. On the one hand are the known
personnel costs needed to store and reprocess an instrument. On the
other are medicolegal concerns regarding both cross-contamination
between patients and use of an accessory that failed to maintain
optimal
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Relevant Article
- Report of the Working Party of the Endoscopy Committee of the British Society of Gastroenterology on the reuse of endoscopic accessories
- M WILKINSON, N SIMMONS, M BRAMBLE, R LEICESTER, J D'SILVA, R BOYS, and R GRAY
Gut 1998 42: 304-306.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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