To the Editor,

I am writing in response to the article, "Frequency of Changing Suction Canisters and Suction Tubing" by Hannah (2007) published in Gastroenterology Nursing 30(5). Thank you for this important and timely article. I work in the endoscopy department at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. When I first started working here 6 years ago, I questioned the practice of hooking up a dirty suction tubing to a clean endoscope.

At the time, there was no information about this issue that I could locate, though I did find that all endoscopic accessories need to be high-level disinfected or sterilized depending on their classification. We considered the suction tubing an endoscopic accessory and noted it has a "single use only" statement on the tubing box. It took some convincing, but I was able to change our practice-we now use only a clean suction canister and clean suction tubing for each case.

Kelly Toothaker, RNC

Staff Nurse II, Eastern Maine Medical Center Endoscopy, [email protected]