Greetings, let us talk about manual cleaning and this is important to remove the biofilm and bioburden in the scope before you take it for high level disinfection. If you do not remove this biofilm, your high level disinfection is not going to be effective. So your scope has gone through the leak test. It came out as a pass. So you take it to the sink for manual cleaning. And before you take it to the sink, you need to prepare your sink. You plug the drain and then fill it with water according to the manufacturer's instructions. Usually it is 80 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit and then add the detergent and you go ahead with the cleaning of the scope. Do not add a detergent before you fill the sink with water as bubbles that form could cause damage to the scope. So once you have the sink ready, filled up with water and with the soap in there or the detergent in there, you make sure that the endoscope is completely immersed in the water throughout the cleaning process. You should keep it underwater throughout the cleaning process. Take a sponge, immerse it in the detergent and clean the exterior of the endoscope. Start with the cleanest part, that is the control section, and then wipe it down to the dirtiest part of the scope, that's the insertion tube. So once you clean the exterior, the next step is to clean the valves and the channels. First valves, you take a valve cleaning brush. You make sure that you take the right brush that is designed for that particular scope. If you take a bigger brush, it could damage the scope. If you take a smaller brush, you are not going to clean the scope properly. So you take the correct valve cleaning brush for that particular scope and insert the valve cleaning brush into the suction valve, air-water valve, biopsy valve, and the suction connector. And then once you insert at each of these places, do a 360 degree turn in each case and then remove it. So once you've done that, you could dispose that brush. So you clean the valves. Next is you have to clean the channels. There are two types of brushes, channel cleaning bristle brush and the pull-through cleaning brush. These are the two different brushes. And make sure you pick the right brush for that scope. You have to follow the manufacturer's instructions for use. You put it down the suction valve at an angle so that it comes out of the distal tip. Once it comes out of the distal tip, examine the brush for any debris. You repeat the process until no debris is detected. So it is very important to do this right because there's nothing else that will clean those channels without adequate brushing. Once you've done that, you go down to the biopsy valve and repeat the same process. Clean it until no debris comes out. So once you put it from one end, pull out from the other side and then take it back to the top end and pull it out from the other side. After you have done that, you go back and clean the suction channel that goes to the universal card. And it comes out of the suction connector. Check for any debris and then repeat it until no debris is seen. So by this, you have cleaned the channels. Now you have to flush the channels. So for flushing, you attach the endoscope flushing aid to the suction connector and another one to the biopsy port and intermittently cover the suction valve to flush the detergent through the biopsy channel and suction channel. Next, you have to flush the remaining channels. So you connect an adapter for the suction valve, air-water valve, biopsy valve and another adapter for the suction connector, air-water connector and the light guide port. So once you connected those, attach a tubing to the adapter for suction connector and the light guide connector and then flush a fresh batch of detergent through the air-water channel. When you are cleaning a side-viewing scope, you rotate the elevator dial up and down so that it cleans out better. Once you completed this, you disconnect the tubing but leave the adapter in place. And now, you take the scope to the next sink for rinsing. And here, rinse the exterior of the scope with clean water. Flush the scope channels with fresh water until debris and detergent have been completely removed. Everything should come out clean. Following this, you flush the scope channels with air, disconnect the tubings and adapter, dry the scope with a lint-free cloth, ensure that the cleaning was effective by doing a visual inspection or by using a magnification glass. And move the scope to a clean bin and that will be transferred to the high-level disinfection room for high-level disinfection. If during this inspection, you see any cracks, corrosion, discoloration or debris, you have to take further measures. In some labs, they would like to do a cleaning verification test to figure out whether the scope has been cleaned out properly or not. So as you can see here, after the leak test, you do manual cleaning. In the manual cleaning, you clean the endoscope under water, outside, valves, channels, brushing and then flushing with detergent, all the channels, and then with air, and then take it out, clean the channels and outside with clean water, then dry it, examine to make sure you did a good job and there's no debris left before you transfer the scope for high-level disinfection. Thank you.

manual cleaning

medical scopes

high-level disinfection

endoscope cleaning process

channel cleaning brushes