According to a recent study, the stethoscope is as contaminated with bacteria as a doctor’s hands. But it is not systematically disinfected.
Disinfect the stethoscope after each use? It is not a hygiene reflex as the tool accommodates as many bacteria as the hands of a doctor. A team from the University Hospitals of Geneva (Switzerland) tried to determine whether this precious tool should not be sterilized after each use. Their results were published on February 27 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
The hands of professionals are the main source of bacterial transmission in hospitals. But what about the stethoscope, which is used on patients every day? 3 doctors lent themselves to the game to answer this question and auscultated 71 patients with a sterile stethoscope, while wearing sterile gloves. After completing the consultation, they underwent a bacteriological test. Several areas of the hands (back, fingertips, muscle protrusions of the palm) and two of the stethoscope (tube and diaphragm) were analyzed.
Traces of Staphylococcus aureus
“Considering that stethoscopes are used repeatedly during the day, that they come in direct contact with the skin of patients, and that they can accommodate several thousand bacteria during a consultation, we perceive them as potentially significant vectors of transmission” , comments Dr Didier Pittet, Principal Investigator.
A guess that has proven to be correct: the diaphragm of the stethoscope is more contaminated than any region of the hand except the fingertips. The tool tube is also more colonized by bacteria than the back of the hand. The same goes for contaminations with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
“From infection control to patient safety perspectives, the stethoscope should be viewed as an extension of the physician’s hand, and disinfected after each contact with the patient,” says Dr Pittet. In France, the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) includes the stethoscope in the recommendations for hygiene and prevention of the risk of infection. But this measure, in addition to not being compulsory, cannot be verified in each cabinet.
Watch the explanations of Dr Didier Pittet:
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