Is the Stella™ 5L system an effective cold sterilization technique for needle-based confocal miniprobes?

摘要

Background and Objective:Needle-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (nCLE) under endoscopic ultrasound guidance is a newly developed imaging technique for pancreatic lesions and lymph nodes, enabling a subcellular level of resolution. The confocal miniprobe is an invasive instrument designed to be reused up to 10 times. Therefore, a method that ensures the complete elimination of microbial contaminants on the device is necessary. We studied the bactericidal efficacy of the Stella™ system, which purports to achieve this objective.