Establishing a clinically relevant bioburden benchmark: A quality indicator for adequate reprocessing and storage of flexible gastrointestinal endoscopes

Background Microbiological surveillance of patient-ready flexible endoscopes has been suggested as a tool for endoscope reprocessing quality assurance. However, a proper guideline defining the performance and the frequency of monitoring procedures and specifying how to interpret the results is lacking. Materials and Methods All channels from the 20 flexible gastrointestinal endoscopes (5 gastroscopes, 9 colonoscopes, and 6 duodenoscopes) used at an endoscopy clinic were tested for the presence of bacteria and fungi early every Monday morning over a 7-month period. Results Bacteria and fungi were detected in 5.7% of the 383 channels tested. Of the 141 scopes tested, 14.1% had detectable growth in at least 1 channel. No significant relationship was detected between the scope or channel type and detection of microorganisms. Over the 7 months of testing, 99.5% of scope channels consistently demonstrated