Contaminated Duodenoscopes: The Story of a Chance and Distressing Finding
It started with a chance discovery, a lucky break that revealed an unlucky situation.
Unsedated transnasal endoscopy effective, lower-cost for monitoring pediatric EoE
Unsedated transnasal endoscopy was shown to be a safe, well-tolerated and lower-cost alternative to esophagogastroduodenoscopy for evaluating pediatric eosinophilic esophagitis, according to recent study data.
Unsedated Transnasal Endoscopy Safe for Children With Eosinophilic Esophagitis
Unsedated transnasal endoscopy (TNE) is a safe, low-cost procedure that can help physicians evaluate paediatric patients with potentially chronic problems in their oesophagus, according to a study published in the journal Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
Can We Design Medical Devices To Be Reprocessed Without Killing People?
Reprocessing has taken center stage in the medical device industry over the past two months, thanks to several high-profile “superbug” outbreaks that were linked to the use of contaminated duodenoscopes (type of endoscope) at two prominent U.S. hospitals.
Deadly bacteria on medical scopes trigger infections
The deadly pattern of illnesses began to emerge in 2012 at hospitals in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Chicago. In each case, the culprit was a bacteria known as CRE, perhaps the most feared of superbugs, because it resists even "last defense" antibiotics — and kills up to 40% of the people it infects.
Nightmare Bacteria And Dirty Scopes – Ignorance And Want In Medicine
From Forbes: A deadly strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, dubbed “nightmare bacteria” by the head of theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has struck again. This time two people died and 179 were exposed to life-threatening carbapenem resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE), a deadly and often untreatable bacterial infection. Yet this is not a story about deadly [...]
Fox News: Joan Rivers’ death: Risk factors of sedation and general anesthesia
Following the death of 81-year-old Joan Rivers from cardiac arrest on Sept. 4, questions have arisen as to the safety of the procedure she underwent at an outpatient endoscopy clinic and whether she was under general anesthesia.
Trans-Nasal Esophagoscopy; Esophagus Exam Endoscopy (Example Video)
This video demonstrates how the esophagus can be examined without any sedation.
Screening for esophageal disease with unsedated transnasal endoscopy is safe and feasible
Researchers report that unsedated transnasal endoscopy is a feasible, safe, and well-tolerated method to screen for esophageal disease in a primary care population.
NY Times: Finding, and Treating, Esophageal Cancer
Diagnosed early, well before patients develop swallowing problems, esophageal cancer is usually curable. A cure is most certain if the problem is detected and corrected before or during the advanced precancerous stage. But for about 90 percent of patients, early detection and treatment are missed, and the outcome is fatal.