Final rinse water quality for flexible endoscopy to minimize the risk of post-endoscopic infection. Report from Healthcare Infection Society Working Party

Abstract

Endoscopic procedures in diagnostic and surgical settings are performed routinely and the number of patients undergoing these procedures is progressively increasing. Outbreaks and sporadic cases of infection associated with the use of endoscopes have decreased due to improvements in endoscope decontamination. The majority of infections occur due to the failure in endoscope reprocessing; however, microbial contamination of the final rinse water has been implicated in some outbreaks and pseudo-outbreaks.