Tuesday 30 April 2013

Cleaning endoscopes: Considering the risks and benefits of enzymatic and non-enzymatic detergents

The cleaning of critical medical devices, such as endoscopes, is of great importance both in terms of protecting the patient and for preventing the transmission of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). For the cleaning of endoscopes there are typically two different types of detergents which can be used – enzymatic and non-enzymatic. Each type of detergent has advantages and disadvantages, ranging from efficacies relating to the removal of contamination to low-level allergenic risks to the people responsible for cleaning and subsequent disinfection.

In order to understand how detergents clean and the important differences between enzymatic and non-enzymatic detergents, Tim Sandle has written an article for the journal ‘Inside Hospitals’. A copy of the article can be read on-line on the websites ‘Hospital Bulletin’ and ‘Inside Hospitals’.

These can be accessed here:


The reference is:

Sandle, T. (2012). “Cleaning endoscopes: Considering the risks and benefits of enzymatic and non-enzymatic detergents”, Inside Hospitals, June 2012, pp14-15

Posted by Tim Sandle

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