OBJECTIVE  To study the cleaning effect of different cleaning methods on biopsy forceps.

METHODS  A total of 360 biopsy forceps collected from Jan. 2024 to Sep. 2024 were divided into four groups: A, B, C and D （n=90 each）. All forceps were identical in their structure and model. Four cleaning methods were employed to treat the biopsy forceps: steam spray gun + spray cleaning machine, steam spray gun + decompression boiling cleaning machine, ultrasonic cleaning + spray cleaning machine and ultrasonic cleaning + decompression boiling cleaning machine. The differences among the groups were evaluated by visual inspection, adenosine triphosphate （ATP） fluorescence detection and residual protein detection.

RESULTS  During the cleaning process of biopsy forceps, the aforementioned three methods were adopted to test the biopsy forceps. The pass rates of the surface of instruments in Group B （steam spray gun + decompression boiling cleaning machine） were 90%, 86.67% and 83.33% for for visual inspection, ATP fluorescence test and residual protein detection, respectively. The pass rates at the intersection of the cover plate were 86.67%, 83.33% and 81.11%, respectively, under the same three detection methods. The pass rates at the front end of the forceps were 87.78%, 86.67% and 83.33%, respectively, under the same three detection methods. The pass rates of biopsy forceps instruments after cleaning in the other three groups were all below 80% under the same three detection methods.

CONCLUSIONS  Among the four cleaning methods, the steam spray gun + decompression boiling cleaning machine achieves the highest pass rate and the lowest re-washing rate in instrument cleaning.