Despite a multistep cleaning and disinfecting process, potentially harmful bacteria survive on colonoscopes and gastroscopes used to examine the gastrointestinal tract, according to a new study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.
As recently reported by Medscape Medical News, duodenoscopes have been the subject of recent warnings from the US Food and Drug Administration, as they have been implicated in causing infections despite having gone through approved reprocessing procedures.
Now, new data suggest the problem may extend to other types of endoscopes as well. “[C]urrent standards and practices may not be sufficient for detecting and removing residual contamination,” write Cori L. Ofstead, MSPH, from the Division of Infectious Diseases, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues.
