Rigid endoscope and Laproscopy

Re: Rigid endoscope and Laproscopy

Shoned Hawksworth — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 04:47:29 GMT

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your replies. I have had the company in to do a demonstration but his English is not great so its very hard to understand him especially when he is contradicting what the manual given says (hence the confusion), years ago we just used to cold sterile all ours but as this is video and laproscope i'm still a bit unsure

There is a leak tester which makes me think yes cold sterilization should be fine, and should be fine to submerge to disinfect. The laproscope says cold sterilize is no good though, i have emailed the company to see if i can get a better response in English - its a Karl Stortz, if either of you guys have heard of them.

Really appreciate the telephone numbers, but i work abroad so the time difference etc it may not be feasible, Its more on the how to sterilse the laproscope im confused about, surely the manual should say the same thing as the guy who demonstrates it?!

Thanks

Re: Rigid endoscope and Laproscopy

cheryl stear — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 11:02:48 GMT

Hi Shoned,

Most new endoscopy equipment is suitable for cold soak sterilization including the video scope, the video scope should have a leak tester that connects to the waterproof cap that protects the plug assembly from fluid ingress and enables you to leak check the instrument prior to use and prior to reprocessing, the only way to sterilize a flexible scope is ETO.

If I can offer you any help, please contact me on 01938 555528 depending on the manufacturer we may already have cleaning and disinfection procedures available that we can send to you.

cheryl[quote user="Shoned Hawksworth RVN VNES"]

We have recently got a new flexible and rigid surgical endoscope to perform laproscopic surgery, dependent on which manual i read from the manufacturer it says completely submerge all instruments in detergent (we use cidex) but then another part says in order to sterilise, chemical sterilisation is no good and should be steam sterilisation.

I am reluctant with the bipolar coagulation forceps to submerge them because of the connectors but it says to do that, and also says to fully submerge the flexible endoscope but ours is video so what about the connectors into the video monitor. One says do not use alcohol on the outside but can flush the inside!!

Very confusing - years ago at a previous practice we cleaned in trigene/medzyne and just soaked the flexible part.

Do you take everything apart, clean with cidezyme, disinfect in cidex and then sterilise in the autoclave? what do other people out there do??

[/quote]

Re: Rigid endoscope and Laproscopy

Lyndsay Kennedy — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 13:36:53 GMT

Ideally, I would contact whoever sold you the endoscope. When I was training, my practice bought one through Veterinary Endoscopy Services, and we not only got demos on how to use the scope before the boss bought one, but all the nurses got demos on how to properly clean and cold-sterilise the scope.

Unfortunately, that was a few years ago, so I'm not confident enough to explain how we were taught to clean it. If you wanted to try giving VES a call their number is 01702 460310.