TEE probe leakage testing has been around for about 30 years. Surprisingly, it’s something that, currently, is still misunderstood by many biomeds, imaging service engineers, even those routinely performing the tests. Believe it or not, TEE probe leakage testing is still not ROUTINELY performed in some healthcare facilities. As such, we thought that it would be a good idea to review how to perform the process, share some best practices, and provide some basic troubleshooting tips.
Let review some basic guidelines.
- SHOULD NOT be routinely performed by the Clinical Engineering or the HTM (Healthcare Technology Management) department.
- NEEDS to be performed by those cleaning and disinfecting TEE probes.
- Typically, this occurs in Central Processing. Your facility may differ.
- Many Echo-cardiology departments clean and disinfect probes locally, and thus perform testing within their department.
- NEEDS to occur between EVERY use.
- PRIOR TO high-level disinfection.
- AFTER a thorough visual inspection. Check out our visual inspection guide here.
- SHOULD NOT OCCUR if an opening can be visualized somewhere on the insertion tube, bending section, or distal tip. In this instance…
- The probe SHOULD NOT be high-level disinfected.
- It should be thoroughly wiped-down with a disinfectant wipe and removed from clinical use.
- The leakage test is designed to identify openings THAT CANNOT BE VISUALIZED.
The video below is a great resource for biomeds, service engineers, and HTM teams. It’s greatest value may be to those who need to perform TEE probe leakage testing as part of their day-to-day. In it, we’ll explain what it is, why it’s performed, how it’s performed, when it should not occur, and provide some very basic troubleshooting.
The following video shows the proper steps to perform TEE probe leakage testing
Our next video post will present some additional, more in-depth, troubleshooting tips and present scenarios in which false positives can occur.