Risk of disease transmission associated with reprocessing hysteroscopes and hemorrhoid band ligators with narrow lumens.

OBJECTIVE

Hysteroscopes and hemorrhoid band ligators represent valuable diagnostic and therapeutic tools in medicine. These reusable devices require reprocessing, but if reprocessing failures occur, patients are at risk for exposure to pathogenic microorganisms.

SETTING

Experiments were conducted in a research microbiology laboratory.

INTERVENTION: To test the effectiveness of a 12-minute or 4-hour immersion in ortho-phthalaldehyde (OPA) with passive filling of the hysteroscopes and hemorrhoid band ligators narrow lumens for killing the intraluminal microbes.

RESULTS

Our results demonstrate that narrow lumens limit the full exposure of pathogenic microbes to high-level disinfectants.

CONCLUSIONS

These experiments demonstrated that OPA disinfection of the hysteroscope would not eliminate contaminating microbes, which represents a reprocessing failure and an infection risk.