TH
ENGAT NEWS & ACTIVITIES
WGO Publishes Newly Updated Endoscope Disinfection Guideline
Dear Gastroenterological Association of Thailand,
WGO has announced the release of the updated “Endoscope disinfection -- a guide to resource-sensitive reprocessing” Guideline. This Guideline is chaired by Dr. Tony Speer of the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia.
Dr. Speer stated that, "This updated guideline addresses the recent outbreaks of multidrug-resistant organisms after endoscopy and proposes measures to reduce the risks of these outbreaks occurring." He also noted that the update states upfront that “The most important step in endoscope reprocessing is scrupulous manual cleaning prior to disinfection. Disinfection will fail if cleaning has been inadequate.”
It is increasingly recognized that biofilms on endoscopes compromise cleaning and disinfection. The conditions reported as causes of outbreaks facilitate biofilm formation and growth, these include inadequate cleaning, inadequate drying, occult endoscope defects including channel damage and breaches of reprocessing protocols.
Biofilm prevention and control are core problems in reprocessing that are addressed in these guidelines. Recommendations have been made to improve cleaning and drying and to reduce occult endoscope defects and breaches of reprocessing protocols.
The science of reprocessing is evolving. New research, including basic research, clinical research, and randomized trials, undertaken in response to the publications of outbreaks of CPE, is now being published. The guidelines will be updated as new information is published. These and other recent guidelines recommend hospitals appoint a multidisciplinary committee with a diversity of interests and expertise to assess new information as it is published and develop, implement, and importantly regularly update reprocessing guidelines that are appropriate to the hospital’s resources and patient mix. Effective reprocessing is key to patient safety in endoscopy.
The Guideline is intended for use by health providers and professionals who are involved in the use, cleaning, and maintenance of endoscopes, and it aims to support national societies, official bodies, and individual endoscopy departments in developing local standards and protocols for reprocessing endoscopes.
The Guideline was created with the global view of many Guideline Review Team members, which in addition to Dr. Speer include: Michelle Alfa (Canada), Alistair Cowen (Australia), Dianne Jones (Australia), Karen Vickery (Australia), Helen Griffiths (United Kingdom), Douglas Nelson (USA), Roque Sáenz (Chile) and Anton LeMair (Netherlands). The guideline and can be accessed at http://www.worldgastroenterology.org/guidelines/global-guidelines/endoscope-disinfection.
We encourage your society to consider alerting your members about the Guideline through emails, your website and newsletters. WGO is also promoting the Guideline through our social media platforms, so please feel free to retweet our Twitter posts and “like” our posts on Facebook (http://www.worldgastroenterology.org/about-wgo/media-center/social-media).
Thank you and best regards,
Jim
Jim Melberg
Program Manager
World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO)
WGO Foundation (WGOF)
555 East Wells Street, Suite 1100
Milwaukee, WI 53202 USA
Phone: +1 (414) 918-9798 | Fax: +1 (414) 276-3349
Email:jmelberg@worldgastroenterology.org
www.worldgastroenterology.org
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