Infection prevention in operating theatres

Infection prevention and control are crucial for guaranteeing patient safety in operating theatres. Infections can stem from several sources, from staff clothing to floor and surface cleaning but also from the equipment used during the procedure.

In the operating theaters, single-use bronchoscopes like the PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo (TM) single-use bronchoscope can provide a safer way to perform procedures as they are ready-to-use, with no hospital sterilisation needed, and potential vulnerabilities in the reprocessing of reusable scopes are therefore avoided. We speak to Dr Mariusz Skrzypczak, MD, Head of the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care at the Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery Center in Poznań, Poland, who shares his clinical experience with this solution in the ICU. 

What, in your opinion, are urgent unmet clinical needs that PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo™ addresses for surgeons and staff in the ICU? 

We expect intensive care equipment to be easily accessible, always at hand and reliable. The PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo™ has all these features and matches our expectations. Its monitor is light, its battery life is excellent, and the picture quality is also very good. It is important to note that most of the time we work in the afternoon, at night or during weekends and holidays – when access to sterilization is limited. We use single-use equipment and the PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo™ meets our requirements perfectly. It has been designed in a way that it can be used as identically and intuitively as multiple-use equipment. Anyone with any experience in using multiple-use bronchoscopes can work with PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo™.

When do you believe PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo™ best supports patients in bronchoscopy and in the ICU?

Protecting patients from catching infections from others is very important and we know that in general, ICU patients suffer from infections. When the patient is deteriorating rapidly and we need to perform a bronchoscopy straight away, single-use equipment is essential. PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo™ comes in sterile packaging, which is easy to open; we can use it in any part of the operating theatre very quickly. It also ensures microbiological safety.

From a workflow perspective, where do you see the most benefit for single use bronchoscopes, such as PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo™ for the ICU? 

The PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo™ meets every demand when it comes to diagnostic procedures in the ICU. The main applications in the ICU in terms of diagnostic work are diagnosing atelectasis, bronchial anastomosis or, in case of surgery, the condition of a graft after a lung transplant.

One way of intubating difficult respiratory tracks is using a scope. In my experience in the operating theatre, PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo™ does the job very well and is an essential element of safety concerning difficult respiratory tracts. For example, adjusting the placement of the double-lumen tube via bronchoscopy is very important on a daily basis in the operating theatre. We have used PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo™ with the 3.4 mm diameter^[1]. This bronchoscope is narrow enough to be used when placing the tube assessing both the tracheal and bronchial lumen. For double-lumen tubes, sizes between 35 and 41 French work in 99% of the cases of adult patients.

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[1]The PENTAX Medical ONE Pulmo™ EB11-S01 has an insertion tube diameter of 3.4 mm.