ENDOSCOPE SAMPLING AND CULTURING METHODS
Contamination rates reported in the literature for patient-ready flexible endoscopes vary from 0.4% to 49%. Unfortunately, the comparison and interpretation of these results is almost impossible since several factors including sampling and culturing methods, target levels for contamination or definition of indicator microorganisms vary widely from one study to the other. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of six duodenoscope sampling and culturing methods by means of extraction efficacy comparison, while at the same time identifying key parameters that provide optimal microbial recovery.