Clever Shield is a dedicated single-use valve solution that meets modern standards for infection prevention to streamline your endoscopic procedures. The sterile-packed valves perform at the same operational quality as reusable valves, and provide a secure air/water flow and suction rate with assured reliability.
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Download FlyerProgress in Infection Prevention — Single-Use Endoscope Components and Endoscopic Accessories
Protecting patients from infection is a constant but necessary challenge for endoscopists and associated health care professionals. To ensure endoscopes — such as gastroscopes, duodenoscopes and colonoscopes — are safe for use, staff must follow strict guidelines on effective endoscope reprocessing, including its components and accessories. Designed to help minimize cross-contamination between patients when equipment is reused, guidelines detail processes of cleaning and disinfection, sterilization (where applicable), and handling and storage.
While proper reprocessing ensures reusable endoscope accessories meet the required high standards of cleanliness and hygiene, single-use endoscopic components and accessories have also entered the market. These are now recommended as viable alternatives to reusable devices by several guidelines, including those from the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and the European Society of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Nurses and Associates (ESGENA) 1 , as well as the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) 2 . By eliminating the need for the reprocessing of endoscopic components and endoscope accessories, single-use devices enable staff to concentrate on reprocessing the endoscope itself.
Patient Safety in Focus
The safety of patients undergoing endoscopy is dependent not only on the good medical practice of trained clinicians, but also on the proper reprocessing of an endoscope, its components and its accessories. Inadequate endoscope reprocessing can lead to infection with pathogens including Salmonella spp., Helicobacter pylori and Pseudomonas spp.
3–5
or more recently, multidrug-resistant organisms
6,7
.
The latest guidelines released by the ESGE and ESGENA, as well as the BSG, outline several important recommendations for the reprocessing of an endoscope, its components and its accessories 1,2 . These precautions are designed to ensure a uniform, standardized reprocessing procedure that can be universally applied each time an endoscope is used.
These recommendations include reprocessing methods for endoscope components and accessories, covering component dismantling, multiple stages of manual and automated cleaning and disinfection, as well as specific conditions for drying and storage.
A Trend toward Single-Use Endoscope Components and Accessories
While reprocessing is reliable when performed correctly according to the manufacturers’ Instructions for Use (IFU), the multiple stages involved are time-consuming. To address these challenges, medical technology providers have developed single-use endoscope components and accessories which can be disposed of after use and require minimal staff handling.
Clever Shield from Olympus is an Olympus-endorsed single-use endoscope component kit that meets modern standards for infection prevention. A Clever Shield kit includes single-use air/water, suction and biopsy valves that provide secure air/water flow and suction rates and assured reliability — and being manufactured and validated by Olympus also means that these valves provide complete compatibility and guaranteed functionality with Olympus endoscopes. Clever Shield valves are silicone-free and have slightly rounded valve tops that enable better manipulation. Delivering the same operational quality as reusable valves, users can be confident of their high performance.
As Clever Shield valves are for single use and have a unique identifier to be used in the documentation system, they are more easily traceable than reusable devices — in line with a key recommendation from the current ESGE/ESGENA guidelines 1 . One-step-opening packaging allows immediate preparation, and the use of different colors easily differentiates the single-use valves from reusable ones.
Olympus also provides single-use endoscope irrigation and insufflation tubing, which when paired with single-use Clever Shield valves provides a powerful solution for infection prevention during endoscopic procedures.
There are numerous benefits of dedicated single-use endoscope components and accessories and, as such, they are increasingly being adopted by health care professionals worldwide. Single-use detachable endoscope components and accessories may potentially reduce the risk of cross-contamination to both patients and staff. By eliminating the need for multiple steps of reprocessing and tracing, single-use components and accessories can also increase the efficiency of endoscopy procedures.
Summary
It is often not known whether a patient is a carrier of a pathogen, and therefore it is prudent to treat all patients undergoing endoscopy as potentially infectious. For this reason, keeping endoscope components and accessories sterile and ensuring that devices can be traced back to specific patients are priorities in modern endoscopy. This can be achieved by following standardized reprocessing procedures for all endoscopes and reusable endoscope accessories after every procedure. Whether in automated scope reprocessing, leak detection, drying and storage or secure, damage-free transport, Olympus is setting new standards in infection prevention while simplifying reprocessing and ensuring efficiency.
Clever Shield single-use valve kits from Olympus offer a straightforward and safe alternative to reusable components. These disposable endoscope appliances can reduce the time spent reprocessing endoscope components and accessories and help minimize the risk of infection to both patients and staff.
Knowing that infection prevention presents its own set of challenges, Olympus is committed to ensuring that you have access to trusted products, establishing partnerships with industry societies that seek to enhance product safety, and providing education and support that empowers your people to perform at their very best.
Clever Shield Valve Kit Components
The three-part valve kit consists of an air/water valve, a suction valve and a biopsy valve.
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EndoTherapy
With EndoTherapy, Olympus offers devices that are designed to precisely match all Olympus endoscopes and HF generators. Whether it is a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure, ranging from basic to advanced, the complete endoscopic product lines from Olympus ensure just the right solution for all clinical needs.
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- 1.Reprocessing of flexible endoscopes and endoscopic accessories used in gastrointestinal endoscopy: Position Statement of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and European Society of Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates (ESGENA)
- 2.BSG Guidance for Decontamination of Equipment for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
- 3.Salmonella newport infections transmitted by fiberoptic colonoscopy.
- 4.Do conventional cleaning and disinfection techniques avoid the risk of endoscopic Helicobacter pylori transmission?
- 5.Pseudomonas and Endoscopy.
- 6.New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-producing carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli associated with exposure to duodenoscopes.
- 7.An outbreak of carbapenem-resistant OXA-48 – producing Klebsiella pneumonia associated to duodenoscopy.