Stay Informed About Scope Contamination

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Understanding the Contamination of Flexible ENT Endoscopes

Flexible endoscopes are exposed to other soils,  such as protein, carbohydrates, matter on a  scope. Research has shown that bioburden  left on instruments interferes with the  sterilization process and can render it  ineffective. Making sure a scope is as clean as possible is thus paramount to preventing cross contamination of any patient undergoing ENT endoscopy. Ensuring cleanliness of scopes should be part of every office’s cleaning program. 

Low cost scope repairs use leak-sealing tape, which involves sealing and trapping bioburden and contamination within the scope. The internal contamination will always break down the scope’s seals. This causes recurring fluid leaks, which will leads to cross contamination. 

Endoscopes have been implicated in the transmission of disease when appropriate cleaning, disinfection or sterilization procedures were not employed. Of particular significance is the need to thoroughly manually clean equipment prior to any manual or automated disinfection or sterilization process.

Important: NationalScope replaces all contimated parts of a scope and rebuilds it with all new parts. This eliminates any posiblity of cross contamination.

Full Study Link:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19482219

NEW ENT Leak Testing Program