Surgery tools used in UK CJD cases can't be traced( are not even traced in America)

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Surgery tools used in UK CJD cases can't be traced

 

 

 

Last Updated: 2003-04-10 12:52:12 -0400 (Reuters Health)

 

LONDON (Reuters Health) - More than half the surgical instruments used on people

who were later found to have the brain-wasting condition Creutzfeldt-Jakob

disease (CJD) cannot be traced, UK government advisers have warned.

 

The CJD Incidents Panel said in its annual report that over a two-year period up

to August 2002, it had been notified of 113 incidents of potential transmission

of CJD and variant CJD -- the human form of " mad cow " disease -- as a result of

medical procedures.

 

CJD is a rare, invariably fatal degenerative brain disorder. The most common

form, sporadic CJD, occurs at random and the cause is not clear. Variant CJD is

believed to have arisen from the consumption of meat tainted with the bovine

brain-wasting condition known as mad cow disease.

 

Since 1995, more than 100 people - almost all of them in the UK - have

contracted variant CJD.

 

In rare cases, CJD has been transmitted to other people through a limited number

of medical procedures, including transplants of dura matter, a type of brain

tissue.

 

Of the incidents reported to the UK panel, 87 -- 77 percent -- involved surgery

or other invasive procedures and 25 involved blood donations. It is not clear,

however, whether CJD can be passed through blood transfusion.

 

Only 45 percent of the trays of surgical instruments could be traced, the report

said.

 

This was " a matter of concern, " as the Department of Health had asked hospitals

to have taken steps to create systems for tracing surgical instruments by March

last year.

 

The most common surgical procedure among the incidents reported to the panel

involved the gastrointestinal tract. Others involved neurosurgery and

tonsillectomies, which may be associated with an increased risk of CJD

transmission.

 

The panel has advised that three patients should be contacted for " public health

reasons. "

 

The report said the panel also wanted more information on the possible risks

that could arise from dental procedures and was waiting for the outcome of a

risk evaluation by the Department of Health.

 

It also expressed concern that it was often difficult to find out which dentists

had treated patients who were later found to have CJD.

 

The panel was set up in 2000. It assists health authorities and clinicians in

handling cases of potential CJD transmission, and advises directors of public

health on patient tracing and on other protective health measures.

 

 

 

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