Polysorbate additive improves microbiological testing of endoscopes: an exploratory study.

Disinfection of endoscopes is inherently difficult due to their flexible structure and inaccessibility for sterilization. We tested a new product based on Polysorbate 80, adding this to the standard reprocessing procedure after an initial non-compliant clean and compared compliance rates during quality assurance between endoscopes cleaned with the standard procedure compared to cleaning with the polysorbate product. Twenty-eight endoscopes received secondary cleaning with the standard procedure, and 29 with the addition of polysorbate. With the addition of polysorbate, compliance reached 100% (95% confidence interval: 88.3-100) compared to 82.1% (64.4-92.1) with standard procedure (P < 0.05). Cleaning technicians were surveyed, rating their satisfaction with the procedure at 9.7/10.