A practical approach to avoiding iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) from invasive instruments.

Potential Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease instrument-contamination events continue to occur, causing widespread hospital and patient concern. We propose the use of a combination of diagnostic tests (ie, spinal fluid for 14-3-3 protein or nasal brushing for misfolded prion protein) and instrument handling procedures (ie, using a regional set of dedicated instruments), which if applied to all patients admitted with symptoms of either dementia or cerebellar disease, should eliminate the risk of iatrogenic instrument infection.