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Multi-society Guideline for Reprocessing Flexible Gastrointestinal Endoscopes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Douglas B. Nelson ,
William R. Jarvis ,
William A. Rutala ,
Amy E. Foxx-Orenstein ,
Gerald Isenberg ,
Georgia P. Dash ,
Carta J. Alvarado ,
Marilee Ball ,
Joyce Griffin-Sobel  and
Carol Petersen
...Show all authors
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Extract

The beneficial role of gastrointestinal endoscopy for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of many digestive diseases and cancer is well established. Like many sophisticated medical devices, the endoscope is a complex, reusable instrument that requires reprocessing before being used on subsequent patients. The most commonly used methods for reprocessing endoscopes result in high-level disinfection. To date, all published episodes of pathogen transmission related to gastrointestinal endoscopy have been associated with failure to follow established cleaning and disinfection/sterilization guidelines or use of defective equipment. Despite the strong published data regarding the safety of endoscope reprocessing, concern over the potential for pathogen transmission during endoscopy has raised questions about the best methods for disinfection or sterilization of these devices between patient uses.

Type
SHEA Position Paper
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 24 , Issue 7 , July 2003 , pp. 532 - 537
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2003

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