Recommendations for the Cleaning of Endocavity Ultrasound Transducers Between Patients

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures for all medical procedures, including ultrasound examinations. As the use of ultrasound increases across more medical modalities, including point-of-care ultrasound, so does the risk of possible transmission from equipment to patients and patients to patients. This is particularly relevant for endocavity transducers, such as trans-vaginal, trans-rectal and trans-oesophageal, which could be contaminated with organisms from blood, mucosal, genital or rectal secretions.
This article proports to update the WFUMB 2017 guidelines which focussed on the cleaning and disinfection of transvaginal ultrasound transducers between patients [1].