A new study by Ofstead & Associates (St Paul, Minnesota) is the latest to raise concerns about infections associated with endoscopic procedures. The study, which focused on ureteroscopes, found that the techniques used to clean and sterilize or high-level disinfect flexible ureteroscopes are not sufficient and leave behind contamination including…

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The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) in September released the newest version of the ANSI/AAMI ST 79 Comprehensive Guide to Steam Sterilization and Sterility Assurance in Healthcare Facilities. This document, last updated in 2013, has been under a major review for changes in the format presentation and…

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Editor's Note Surgeon’s cloth skull caps that expose small amounts of the ears and hair are not inferior to bouffant disposable hats that cover those features, finds this study presented October 25 at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2017 in San Diego and published online October 26 in…

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Editor's Note Adding oral antibiotics to mechanical bowel preparation for left colorectal cancer surgery significantly lowered the rate of surgical site infections (SSIs), but the effect was marginal in right-colon resections, this study finds. For 89 patients having left colorectal resections, the rate of SSIs was 27% with mechanical bowel…

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  Editor's Note In this study from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, patients with penicillin allergies had a 50% increased odds of developing surgical site infections (SSIs), which the researchers attributed to the second-line antibiotics administered to them.  A total of 8,385 patients who had surgery between 2010 and 2014…

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Editor's Note Surgical patients who received antibiotic prophylaxis before low-risk procedures did not have an increased risk for postoperative antibiotic-resistant infections, this study finds. Of 22,138 patients included in the analysis, 689 developed an infection within 30 days after surgery. Of these, 550 (80%) had received antibiotic prophylaxis, and 338…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 20 cleared the first duodenoscope with a disposable end cap, which will improve access for cleaning and reprocessing. The new features of the Pentax ED34-i10T duodenoscope include a single-use detachable and disposable distal cap, simpler user interface, improved ergonomics, improved…

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Editor's Note A risk-assessment system designed to avoid harm in private industry (ie, Socio-Technical Probabilistic Risk Assessment [ST-PRA]), was used by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)-funded researchers to identify practices likely to pose infection risks in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). The ST-PRA ranks failure points (events) according to…

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Editor's Note There are enough healthcare-associated infection (HAI) data reported on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website to meet minimal criteria for useful hospital comparisons in many geographic areas; however, it varies by type of HAI, this study finds. The analysis included data from 4,561…

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Editor's Note Antimicrobial-impregnated scrub clothes are not effective at reducing healthcare provider contamination, this study finds. Cultures were obtained from each of 40 ICU nurses, the healthcare environment, and patients during each shift. Nurses wore standard cotton-polyester surgical scrubs (control), scrubs that contained a complex element compound with a silver-alloy…

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