Single-Use Bronchoscopes Could Reduce Contamination Risks During COVID-19 Pandemic

In the early days of the current COVID-19 pandemic, samples from biopsies and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid were collected via bronchoscopy to isolate the virus and sequence its genome. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also initially recommended collecting BAL samples for diagnosis. But after learning more about COVID-19 and how it is transmitted, the American Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology (AABIP) recently released a guidance that recommends limiting bronchoscopies. “With bronchoscopy, you have the potential to generate aerosols that may be releasing particles from the lungs that contain the virus,” said Jens Kemp, vice president of marketing, USA, AMBU Inc., in an interview with MD+DI. (AMBU manufactures single-use bronchoscopes.) Kemp said bronchoscopies are sometimes still necessary for critically ill patients. “If you have a patient where you suspect a secondary infection, another potential bacteria that could be causing complications, and you want to find out what type of bacteria it is, you would still need to do a bronchoscopy,” he explained. He cited another example of a patient who may have already been intubated, but initially tested negative for COVID-19. “It could happen because a lot of these upper respiratory tract swabs are not 100% accurate, so you can have negative test even though the patient might have the virus,&ac...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: COVID-19 Source Type: news