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Olympus Corp., whose specialized medical scopes are among those linked to a series of deadly "superbug" outbreaks around the country, said Friday that it will voluntarily recall and redesign the devices in an effort to prevent future infections. The company produces the vast majority of duodenoscopes used in the United States, followed by two other firms, Pentax and Fujifilm. The devices are used in hundreds of thousands of procedures annually in this country to drain fluids from pancreatic and bile ducts blocked by tumors, gallstones and other conditions. But in recent years, they also have been linked to numerous outbreaks...

on this topic generated plenty of interest (despite the small number of posted comments), so we continue our coverage… Yet another prestigious hospital joins the ranks of those reporting Carbapenem resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections, linked to endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) endoscopes. On March 4th, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles discovered that four patients were infected with CRE, and 67 others may have been exposed. Lisa McGiffert, director of the Safe Patient Project at Consumers Union, and a longtime activist regarding hospital-acquired infections, said that “It’s highly likely many hospitals around the country have had outbreaks, and they haven’t been...

EXCLUSIVE: The late comedian went to Yorkville Endoscopy for a routine endoscopy on Aug. 28, but a doctor — who arrived with Rivers' entourage — offered to perform a biopsy after another doctor noticed 'something' on the entertainer's vocal chords, a medical source told the Daily News. The routine surgical procedure Joan Rivers was supposed to undergo turned deadly when a doctor who arrived at the clinic with the legendary comic’s entourage performed an unplanned biopsy on her vocal cords, a medical source who was briefed on the case told The News. Such a procedure is not supposed to be...