(August 14, 2006)—Nearly a thousand Central Texas veterans who underwent prostate biopsies at local VA hospitals will soon get letters warning them there’s a remote chance they may have been exposed to Hepatitis-B, Hepatitis-C or HIV as a result of an inadequate sterilization process.

The letters invite veterans to come back to hospitals for blood testing for potential exposure.

Veterans do not have to undergo an additional biopsy.

The veterans, who began receiving the letters on Friday, underwent procedures between 2003 and April 3, 2006, when the Department of Veterans Affairs issued a Patient Safety Alert after a portion of the needle guide of a particular transrectal ultrasound transducer assembly used in prostate biopsies was found to be soiled.

Click Here For Full VA Patient Safety Alert

The device was in wide use throughout the VA system.

The needle that’s used with the device, which is inserted into the rectum, is designed for one-time use, but the device itself is reused.

“If these devices are not correctly reprocessed between patients, residual material from a previous patient may contaminate the biopsy needle and needle guide when the system is reused for biopsies,” the US Food and Drug Administration said in a separate notification issued in June.

In the notice, the FDA suggests that the contamination discovered by the VA may be a more general problem.

“We believe inadequate reprocessing procedures may be a problem for all invasive ultrasound transducer assemblies,” the FDA said in the notice.

Click Here For More Of The FDA Notification

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