The manufacturer of medical scopes linked to last month’s superbug outbreak at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center released new cleaning guidelines for its scopes Thursday.
At the UCLA and Cedars-Sinai medical centers, the superbug spread among patients from contaminated duodenoscopes made by Olympus Corp. of the Americas even after hospitals said they followed the manufacturer’s cleaning instructions. Two patients died, and more than 170 people may have been exposed to the antibiotic-resistant bacteria at UCLA. Since the outbreak, multiple patients and patients’ families have filed lawsuits against Olympus Corp. for alleged negligence, fraud and wrongful death.
Because they have hard-to-reach crevices and recesses, duodenoscopes are difficult to disinfect entirely and have been linked to superbug outbreaks across the country. Duodenoscopes are widely used during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography procedures to treat problems of the pancreatic and biliary ducts without having to perform surgery on a patient.
Though superbug outbreaks have been linked to contaminated duodenoscopes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended the continued use of the Olympus duodenoscopes, saying hospitals would not be able to meet the clinical demand for about 500,000 procedures a year in the U.S. without the scopes.
The FDA approved new cleaning guidelines for the duodenoscopes Thursday and sent out a safety communication to further inform hospitals about the new guidelines. The Olympus scope was not approved for sale by the FDA after Olympus changed its design in 2010.
The new procedures include raising and lowering the elevator, a part at the tip of the duodenoscope that moves up and down and contains microscopic crevices that are hard to clean, while immersed in disinfectant to allow for better access to hard-to-reach places and additional flushing of the scope’s elevator recess with disinfectant.
The guidelines also call for a new, smaller-bristle brush to clean the scope’s elevator recess more thoroughly, in addition to the brush currently used.
Olympus said in its updated guidelines that it would send out the new cleaning brushes to hospitals no later than May 8.
UCLA was not available for comment for this article. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center spokeswoman Jane Brust said the hospital had already implemented the new guidelines.
Compiled by Ryan Leou, Bruin contributor.