Thapa Sangita, Sapkota Lokendra Bahadur
Department of Clinical Microbiology & Immunology, Chitwan Medical College & Teaching Hospital (CMCTH), Bharatpur-10, Chitwan, Nepal.
Department of Biochemistry, Chitwan Medical College, Bharatpur-10, Chitwan, Nepal.
BMC Res Notes. 2017 Jul 28;10(1):353. doi: 10.1186/s13104-017-2677-7.
Stethoscope is a medical device universally used by health care workers. Stethoscope may transmit pathogens among patients and health care workers if it is not disinfected. The objective of this study was to, determine the level of stethoscope contamination used by health care workers, survey the practices of disinfecting the stethoscope, identify various microorganisms and assess their role as potential pathogens and determine the effectiveness of 70% ethanol as a disinfecting agent.
This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the department of Microbiology, Chitwan Medical College, Bharatpur, Nepal. Stethoscopes of 122 health care workers from different departments were included in this study. Out of a total 122 diaphragms, 88 (72.1%) were colonized. Only 71 (58.1%) bells and 152 earpieces (66.2%) were contaminated. Micrococcus and coagulase negative staphylococci were predominantly isolated species. The contamination was lowest among stethoscopes cleaned after touching every patient (11.5%) and the difference is statistically significant (P < 0.0001). Significantly lower level of contamination (13.6%) were found on stethoscopes cleaned everyday (P < 0.0001). Only 8.5% stethoscope showed growth with decreased number of colonies after disinfecting the stethoscopes with 70% ethanol. Thus, demonstrating the effectiveness of disinfection.
听诊器是医护人员普遍使用的医疗设备。如果听诊器未进行消毒，可能会在患者和医护人员之间传播病原体。本研究的目的是确定医护人员使用的听诊器污染水平，调查听诊器的消毒做法，鉴定各种微生物并评估它们作为潜在病原体的作用，以及确定70%乙醇作为消毒剂的有效性。
这是一项在尼泊尔巴拉特普尔奇特旺医学院微生物学系进行的横断面研究。本研究纳入了来自不同科室的122名医护人员的听诊器。在总共122个膜片中，88个（72.1%）被定植。只有71个（58.1%）听头和152个耳塞（66.2%）被污染。微球菌和凝固酶阴性葡萄球菌是主要分离出的菌种。在接触每位患者后清洁的听诊器中污染率最低（11.5%），差异具有统计学意义（P < 0.0001）。每天清洁的听诊器污染水平显著较低（13.6%）（P < 0.0001）。在用70%乙醇对听诊器进行消毒后，只有8.5%的听诊器显示有菌落生长且菌落数量减少。因此，证明了消毒的有效性。
