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The Lachine Hospital in Montreal is testing patients who underwent bariatric surgery between 2012 and 2014 for possible HIV or hepatitis infection, after a review found a tool used in the procedure hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned.
About 150 people received letters last February informing them they should undergo tests as a precaution.
“We realized there was still some ashes and debris remaining in the internal part of the instrument,” said MUHC’s director of human infection prevention, Charles Frenette.“Not knowing what those ashes might represent, the possibility (is there) that it might be contaminated by blood.”
The tool, called a liver retractor, is typically disassembled, physically cleaned and then sterilized. But the review found that the device was not properly disassembled before being cleaned, although it was sterilized.
A screw that holds the instrument together was taken apart by the surgical team only after the instrument was sterilized.
The likelihood that an illness was transmitted is very low, said the hospital.
“The risk really, really minimal. What’s important to say is that the instrument was always scrubbed on the outside every time and highly disinfected between each patient,” said Frenette.
Nevertheless, 147 bariatric surgery patients have been contacted and told to undergo blood tests.
So far, 90 per cent of the patients have been tested and all have come back negative.
There remain about 15 people who the hospital has been unable to contact.
Patients’ rights activist Paul Brunet, from the Council for Patient Protection, said Lachine hospital was right to take the precautions it did, but is not happy they chose to send out letters.
“Talk to them. Don’t send them a letter,” he said. “This is not a car defect recall. It’s about someone’s health.”
Frenette agreed, saying Lachine Hospital did meet with some patients in person.
“It is always anxiety producing to receive such a letter and that’s why we have seen most patients in our clinic,” said MUHC’s director of human infection prevention, Charles Frenette.
The MUHC is now removing the screw when sterilizing the liver retractor.
Agencies/Canadajournal
