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Article: Decontamination and traceability of flexible endoscopes.(EDUCATION AND PRACTICE)
- Article from:
- Journal of Perioperative Practice
- Article date:
- June 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Association for Perioperative Practice. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Introduction
The risk of contamination
Cross contamination is one of the most serious complications of diagnostic flexible endoscopy and usually results from inadequate cleaning and decontamination of the flexible endoscope. There have been documented cases of respiratory infections caused by Mycobacterium chelonae and Methylobacterium mesophilicum (Kressel 2001) as well as a number of reported cases of antimicrobial-resistant Pseudomonas aeuroginosa (CDC 1991, Sorin et al 2001, Weber & Rutala 2001) and recorded transmissions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Weber & Rutala 2001) and Meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). There is also a ...