VacioPak for Endoscopy

Our experience has been that different AER and dryer combinations produce a wide range of quality output – for example, many dryers have not dried the scopes fully at the end of the conditioning (drying) period. As we know, if there are any bacteria left at the end of the disinfection cycle, they have the potential to grow in a moist environment. Therefore, we feel it is imperative that we help you validate your system before we supply our solution to storage and transportation (VacioPak for Endoscopy). Our validation process entails taking inoculated surrogate endoscopes through your washers and dryers and then evaluating the bacteria load before placement inside a VacioPak system and at 7 days or longer (as local SOPs require). In a validated system, VacioPak for Endoscopy has proven to be effective for over 60 days of storage.

To ensure reliable validation, we will only work with Washers and Dryers that are validated to BS ENISO 15883-4:2009: Requirements and tests for washer disinfectors employing chemical disinfection for thermolabile endoscopes, and EN 16442:2015: Controlled environment storage cabinet for processed thermolabile endoscopes. Notwithstanding, washer disinfectors are only tested to disinfection levels of microbiological reduction, and not to sterilisation levels – therefore, there is a risk that bacteria are still present at the end of the washer disinfector process, and thus the scope must be dry to avoid growth of any remaining bacteria.