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  Vol. 158 No. 8, April 27, 1998 TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Endoscopists Need to Clean Up Their Act—Literally

Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In response to the editorial on colon cancer reduction,1 we would like to point out an additional potentially severe complication associated with cancer screening using a flexible sigmoidoscope or colonoscope—the fairly high probability that the screened patient will be exposed to a contaminated endoscope. According to the US Preventive Services Task Force,2 "An individual's lifetime risk of dying of colorectal cancer in the U.S. has been estimated to be 2.6%." However, as researched by the US Food and Drug Administration and 3 state departments of health3: "A total of 23.9% of the bacterial cultures from the internal channels of 71 gastrointestinal endoscopes grew 100,000 colonies or more of bacteria." As a result, they report that "outbreaks with substantial morbidity and mortality have occurred."

Detailed guidelines for the proper cleaning, high-level disinfecting, and rinsing of flexible endoscopes are available.4-7 It is imperative that endoscopists implement these guidelines, so that the . . . [Full Text of this Article]



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RELATED ARTICLE

Colon Cancer Reduction: Questions About Implementation of Proven Techniques
James R. Marshall, David S. Alberts, and Richard E. Sampliner
Arch Intern Med. 1997;157(17):1919-1920.
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