Importance of Leak Testing

Half of the repair money spent by customers would be less if it weren't for fluid invasion.

Article by:

Mark Garcia

Many of the repairs our Service Department conducts wouldn't cost as much if it weren't for damage and/or cleanup from fluids getting into areas of the endoscope due to a leaking biopsy channel, bending rubber, or in another part of the endoscope which would be found with regular leak testing of the flexible endoscope instrument.

The amount of fluid getting into areas of the endoscope where it's not supposed to can range from minor moisture buildup to completely flooded (where the entire insides are filled with cleaning/soaking fluids when the endoscope is submerged for cleaning with a leak).

Damage that can happen inside your endoscope from these fluid invasions can include:

• Lens fogging (Ocular and tip on fiberscopes, CCD lens on videoscopes)
• Moving components lubrication dilution
• Corrosion of the internal parts
• Corrosion of internal electronics wiring (videoscopes)
• CCD video chip damage (videoscopes)
• Angulation control wire breakage

Having the control wires break will render your endoscope inoperative during a procedure. This in turn will bring costs for repairs to you into the thousands.

If fluid in your scope is not addressed in a timely manner, it could cause such damage as to render the endoscope unrepairable - thus you'll be faced with replacing your endoscope, instead of just repairing it!

The last thing our Service Techs want to tell a customer is that we cannot repair their endoscope because it's too damaged.

A simple leak test would prevent most of these types of damage from happening - learning that your endoscope is not air-tight before fluids get in. It takes but a few minutes to test your endoscope before and after each procedure, and prior to getting your endoscope in contact with a cleaning solution soak. It can save you a lot of headache, down-time and expense with just making this simple test a regular habit.

If you believe there's fluid in your endoscope, you can send it to our Service Department for Repair. If there's no damage, we may be able to disassemble it and dry it out to prevent major damage from happening.