Ultrasound Gel: Proper use

This is a cross post from Sonographers Blog.  The way we store and warm our ultrasound gel in the echo lab is not as critical as in the OB-GYN and abdominal lab, but I still fell like I should cross post to this forum.  Echocardiographers need to clean out the dozens of gel bottles they have on the counter or in a cabinet for a couple reasons: 1) HIPAA and JCAHO do not like to see these bottles.  2) These bottles harbor pathogens that are pretty nasty.  I do not see many infections caused by old bottles of gel in the cabinet, but you never know.  Look at the bugs in Saudi Arabia.  Who know's where they live.  Many echo labs perform post cardiac surgery echos.  Enough said.  Here is the link.  Blessings.

CHICAGO (November 12, 2012) – In the December issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, guidelines have been proposed by epidemiologists from Beaumont Health System to reduce the risk of infection from contaminated gels. The recommendations are based on the authors’ own experiences with an outbreak traced to contaminated ultrasound transmission gel.

In December 2011, researchers uncovered an unusual cluster of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a cardiovascular surgery intensive care unit during routine infection control surveillance. The outbreak was found to have stemmed from bottles of ultrasound transmission gel that were contaminated during the manufacturing process and that were being used for intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography.  This information ultimately led to a national recall of the product.

Thanks Sonoworld and all.

http://www.shea-online.org/View/smid/428/ArticleID/182.aspxhttp://www.shea-online.org/View/smid/428/ArticleID/182.aspx