Abelardo Edgardo, Davies Gareth, Sanders Charlotte, Wallace Jennifer, Makrygiannis Nikolaos, Howarth Antony
ENT-HNS Department, Glangwili General Hospital, Carmarthen, UK.
Institute of Life Sciences 2, Swansea University Medical School, Swansea, UK.
Infect Prev Pract. 2022 Sep;4(3):100220. doi: 10.1016/j.infpip.2022.100220. Epub 2022 May 23.
To assess the efficiency of decontamination of flexible nasoendoscopes using a chlorine dioxide wipe system and assessing the risk of disease transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prospective and retrospective review of 544 patient episodes of nasoendoscopy and a study of 41 patient procedures and 22 members of staff at an ENT Outpatient Department from September 2020 to March 2021.
Among 41 randomly selected episodes of nasoendoscopy in the clinic, there was 93%-100% compliance with decontamination guidelines suggested by ENT UK. Among 544 patients who had nasoendoscopies, 20 had RT-PCR tests within two weeks and all yielded a negative result; no clusters of consecutive endoscopies were noted. None among the 22 clinic staff had symptoms of COVID-19 infection during the study period.
Accepting the limitations of the study design, this audit found no evidence of nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus related to use or reprocessing of flexible nasoendoscopes among patients and staff following good compliance to ENT UK decontamination guidelines.
评估使用二氧化氯擦拭系统对软性鼻内镜进行消毒的效率，并评估在新冠疫情期间疾病传播的风险。
对544例鼻内镜检查患者病例进行前瞻性和回顾性审查，并对2020年9月至2021年3月期间耳鼻喉科门诊的41例患者手术和22名工作人员进行研究。
在诊所随机抽取的41例鼻内镜检查病例中，符合英国耳鼻喉科协会建议的消毒指南的比例为93%-100%。在544例接受鼻内镜检查的患者中，20例在两周内进行了RT-PCR检测，所有结果均为阴性；未发现连续内镜检查的聚集情况。在研究期间，22名诊所工作人员中无人出现新冠病毒感染症状。
考虑到本研究设计的局限性，本次审计未发现有证据表明，在患者和工作人员严格遵守英国耳鼻喉科协会消毒指南的情况下，与软性鼻内镜的使用或再处理相关的严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2病毒发生了医院内传播。
