Recent studies show that appropriate manual cleaning of endoscopes reduces the number of microorganisms and organic load by 4-6 LOGS or 99,99% (Puri 2017), highlighting the critical importance of thorough pre-cleaning. High level disinfection can only be reached with a decent pre-cleaning process, as this prevents the formation of biofilm. While the pre-cleaning process takes only a short amount of time, its importance in the reprocessing of endoscopes is critical. If the instrument is not clean, then it certainly cannot be made sterile. However, several other studies show that the present reprocessing and process control procedures are often not sufficiently adequate and safe. Recent research claims that One of the main reasons is the failing education of the staff,. (Knight 201X) It’s safe to say that both current time-issues and the lack of correct knowledge leads to current problems concerning endoscopic infections. Manual cleaning is generally effective but difficult to control in practice.
The full article contains 16 pages.