Preventive effect of postoperative disinfection of endoscope on bacterial adhesion to endoscope

: We took culture of throat swab from 77 subjects who were negative for infection of HBV, HCV, HIV and syphilis infection before and after endoscopy. Moreover, the existence of bacterium including Helicobacter pylori at overcoat of endoscopic instrument was investigated right after examination and after disinfection of endoscope. Povidoneiodine, 70% alcohol and 1% benzalkonium chloride was used as a disinfectant for endoscope, and it took less than 10 minutes to wash by hand to disinfection. alpha-haemolytic streptococci, Staphylococcus epidermids, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis, Candida, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and MRSA were cultured in throat swab. The rate of adhesion of bacterium especially such as Candida, K. pneumoniae and S. epidermids to endoscope was considerably high. 23 of 77 subjects had H. pylori infection, and the adhesion of H. pylori to endoscope was found to be 65.2% of the subjects. On the contrast, no bacterium was detected from the endoscopic instrument after careful disinfection. These findings stress the importance of postoperative disinfection of the endoscope to prevent the chance to acquire bacterial infection.