Colonoscopies are recommended for people age 50 and above for routine cancer screenings. The procedures are performed under mild sedation in hospitals or ASCs. Hutfless’ research has shown direct correlations between the number of procedures performed at a particular center and the rates of infection.
“High-volume centers tend to have lower infection risks,” says Hutfless, adding that she and her colleagues attribute the lower risk to more experience and a faster turnover of colonoscopes. “It may not be cost-effective for high-volume centers to switch to disposable.”
The researcher says that certain low-volume centers could benefit from disposable scopes. “They may decrease device-related infection transmission and may prove cost-effective for some facilities, particularly those with low volume and patients with a high infection risk.”
She also points to the environmental impact that millions of throw-away plastic scopes would have. “That’s something that very much needs to be considered,” she says.
Coauthors of the Gut article were Anthony Kalloo of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Sara Larsen, a student at the Aalborg University School of Medicine and Health.
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