Guidelines of cleaning and disinfection in gastrointestinal endoscope for clinicians

Gastrointestinal endoscopy plays an important diagnostic and therapeutic role in the field of gastrointestinal disease. As endoscopies have become more common due to the nationwide screening program for digestive cancer and an increasing interest in health among the general public, the risk of infection transmission between patients has emerged as a clinical challenge. Although endoscopes can become highly contaminated with secretions and blood during use, the thorough reprocessing of an endoscope before it is reused in subsequent patients can be difficult due to its complicated structure. Although the incidence of endoscopy-associated infections has been reported to be extremely low, compelling evidence suggests that the actual incidence is underestimated. It has been well established that endoscopes reprocessed appropriately, in accordance with standard guidelines, have no risk of infection transmission. Although revised guidelines for endoscope reprocessing were released in Korea in 2015, suboptimal infection prevention practices during endoscope reprocessing have been reported. Under these circumstances, the Korean Society of Digestive Endoscopy developed the ‘Guidelines of cleaning and disinfection in gastrointestinal endoscope for clinicians’ based on the currently available evidence. These guidelines provide accurate and updated information on reprocessing techniques, and can help improve the quality of reprocessing and compliance by health care personnel. As a result, infection control during gastrointestinal endoscopies can be expected to be achieved in Korea.