Abstract
OBJECTIVES--To describe the organisms cultured from general practitioners' auriscope earpieces; and to explore general practitioners' perceptions of the possibility of cross infection from contaminated auriscope earpieces and of how their auriscope earpieces are cleaned. DESIGN--Microbiological survey of auriscope earpieces in two general practices and a semistructured questionnaire sent to 105 general practitioners. SETTING--General practitioners served by one district general hospital microbiology laboratory in the north of England. RESULTS--Organisms were cultured from 41 (93%) of 44 auriscope earpieces, of which 14 (32%) carried potential pathogens; four (9%) were heavily contaminated. Of the 85 (81%) general practitioners who responded, 72 (85%) believed that contaminated auriscope earpieces could cause serious infection, 66 (78%) did not clean earpieces between patients, and 70 (82%) thought that patients would mind if they knew that dirty earpieces were used. CONCLUSIONS--Almost a third of auriscope earpieces were contaminated by pathogenic bacteria. Although general practitioners suspected this, most did not ensure that a clean earpiece was used for each patient.
Full text
PDF
Images in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Brook I. Bacterial flora of airline headset devices. Am J Otolaryngol. 1985 Mar-Apr;6(2):111–114. doi: 10.1016/s0196-0709(85)80048-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Cassisi N., Cohn A., Davidson T., Witten B. R. Diffuse otitis externa: clinical and microbiologic findings in the course of a multicenter study on a new otic solution. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol Suppl. 1977 May-Jun;86(3 Pt 3 Suppl 39):1–16. doi: 10.1177/00034894770863s201. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Chai T. J., Chai T. C. Bactericidal activity of cerumen. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1980 Oct;18(4):638–641. doi: 10.1128/aac.18.4.638. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Horder J., Bosanquet N., Stocking B. Ways of influencing the behaviour of general practitioners. J R Coll Gen Pract. 1986 Nov;36(292):517–521. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Marcy S. M. Infections of the external ear. Pediatr Infect Dis. 1985 Mar-Apr;4(2):192–201. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Sheth K. J., Miller R. J., Sheth N. K., Remenuik E., Massanari R. M. Pseudomonas aeruginosa otitis externa in an infant associated with a contaminated infant bath sponge. Pediatrics. 1986 Jun;77(6):920–921. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stone M., Fulghum R. S. Bactericidal activity of wet cerumen. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 1984 Mar-Apr;93(2 Pt 1):183–186. doi: 10.1177/000348948409300217. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]