Intensive care medicine

Control (management)

Retraining

Infection control

Surgery

Guideline

Medical physics

Telecommunications

Economics

Computer science

Medical emergency

Business

International trade

Endoscope

Endoscopy

Internal medicine

Operations management

Documentation

Artificial intelligence

Medicine

Transmission (telecommunications)

Programming language

Gastroenterology

General surgery

Pathology

Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

1.Transmission of infection as a result of GI endoscopes is extremely rare, and most reported cases are attributable to lapses in currently accepted endoscope reprocessing protocols or to defective equipment.2.Endoscopes should undergo HLD as recommended by governmental agencies and all pertinent professional organizations for the reprocessing of GI endoscopes (Table 1, Category IB and IC).Table 1The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention system for categorizing recommendations is as follows:Category IA. Strongly recommended for implementation and strongly supported by well-designed experimental, clinical, or epidemiologic studies.Category IB. Strongly recommended for implementation and supported by some experimental, clinical, or epidemiologic studies and a strong theoretical rationale.Category IC. Required by state or federal regulations. Because of state differences, readers should not assume that the absence of an IC recommendation implies the absence of state regulations.Category II. Recommended for implementation and supported by suggestive clinical or epidemiologic studies or theoretical rationale.No recommendation. Unresolved issue. Practices for which insufficient evidence or no consensus regarding efficacy exists. Open table in a new tab 3.Attention should be focused on preventing transmission of highly resistant organisms by duodenoscopes, in particular, on ensuring cleaning and HLD of the elevator mechanism and elevator wire channel (Category IB).4.Extensive training of staff involved in endoscope reprocessing is mandatory for quality assurance and for effective infection control, and documentation of this training is required (Category IC).5.The efficacy of manual cleaning and HLD is operator dependent, thus assignment of personnel responsible for endoscope reprocessing, extensive training of reprocessing personnel, process validation, and quality assurance is vital, and staff competency should be assessed at the very least on an annual basis (Category IB and IC).6.In the event of reprocessing failure, the patient, the institution’s designated infection control personnel, local and/or state public health agencies, the FDA, the CDC, and the manufacturers of the involved equipment should be notified immediately (Category IC).7.General infection control principles should be complied with in the endoscopy unit (Category IA and IC).8.Use of standard precautions reduces the transmission of infection from patients to endoscopy personnel (Category IA and IC).9.Endoscopy units must have a qualified individual who directs their infection prevention plans (Category II).

ASGE guideline for infection control during GI endoscopy