Endoscopy plays a pivotal role in the diagnosis and treatment of various medical conditions but carries with it a potential risk for infection transmission through reusable endoscopes. Concern for patient safety and the need for cost-effective healthcare practices have sparked a long-standing debate surrounding single-use versus reusable endoscopes.
Ten years ago, the initial dynamic—partly driven by industry—was to push the market toward single-use endoscopes, noted Klaus Mergener, MD, PhD, MBA, MASGE, an affiliate professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, in Seattle. But single-use endoscopes have significant downsides, he said, and may not be necessary for most patients as long as efforts are focused on optimizing reprocessing and exploring innovation for automated reprocessing products.
When it comes to reusable endoscopes, no single, simple and proven technology or prevention strategy exists to reduce infection transmission, but addressing human error to the extent possible through automated solutions—and investments in more comprehensive training for the necessary human component of endoscope reprocessing—are sorely needed, he said.
“The investment into our reprocessing personnel, and the processes themselves, is often suboptimal,” Dr. Mergener said. “I would encourage everyone to consider increasing their investment in training on the reprocessing step.”