Endoscopes

DEFCTIVE ENDOSCOPES

Improper cleaning of endoscopy devices can transmit disease and the threat of becoming infected by an endoscope is on the rise. According to the Los Angeles Times, “the California Department of Health Services has issued warnings to 1,000 hospitals and clinics statewide about the use of undisenfected probes in routine colon exams. The flexible hose-like probes -- known as bronchoscopes, sigmoidoscopes and colonoscopes, depending on what part of the body they examine -- use a fiber-optic lens to allow doctors to peer inside the throat, lungs and other parts of the body without surgery. They are used 15 million times a year by various medical providers.

But despite the fact that thousands of patients nationwide have received warning letters about the prospect of being made sick by dirty probes, government agencies have done little to address the problem.
Heath-care activists say many overworked hospital and clinic workers will cut corners on cleaning to save time. A 1997 survey in the Archives of Family Medicine showed that most primary care physicians in the United States failed to follow more than one- third of the federal guidelines for the proper use of sigmoidoscopes, used to detect colon cancer.

Sheller Ludwig & Badey recently filed a case in New Jersey case against Virtua Health Systems Summit Surgical Center for failure to adequately clean endoscopy equipment which has put thousand of patients at risk of contracting HIV, hepatitis and other infections.