The effectiveness of immersion disinfection for flexible fiberoptic laryngoscopes.
OBJECTIVE
We sought to determine whether high-level disinfection renders fiberoptic laryngoscopes free of nonviral infectious microorganisms.


METHODS
Six flexible fiberoptic laryngoscopes in heavy use were subjected to surveillance cultures at the beginning, middle, and end of the clinical workday after high-level disinfection to determine if microorganisms could be recovered. Control cultures were obtained by direct contamination of the endoscope with saliva. The rate of microorganism recovery from the endoscopes after high-level disinfection was determined and compared with control specimens.


RESULTS
Among a total of 48 cultures submitted from in use but disinfected fiberoptic laryngoscopes, 1 positive culture (positive rate, 2.1%) for mold species was recovered. No positive bacterial cultures occurred. Eleven of 11 (100%) control cultures were positive for bacterial species (P < 0.001). The confidence interval for the risk of microorganism contamination of a disinfected laryngoscope ranged from 0.11% to 11.6%.


CONCLUSIONS
High-level disinfection provides a reasonably effective method of reducing bacterial and fungal contamination of flexible fiberoptic laryngoscopes. Appropriate surveillance technique should be used in each clinical setting with flexible fiberoptic scopes to ensure adequate disinfection effectiveness.
Bhattacharyya
Neil
N
Division of Otolaryngology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. neiloy@massmed.org
Kepnes
Lynne J
LJ
D004203:Disinfection / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology; D006801:Humans; D007049:Iatrogenic Disease / Q000517:prevention & control; D020704:Laryngoscopes / Q000382:microbiology*; D010036:Otolaryngology / Q000295:instrumentation