But others in similar circumstances may not have been so lucky, because of a growing practice that is threatening untold numbers of patients in U.S. hospitals. The danger comes from medical instruments that are intended to be used once and thrown away but that, instead, are repackaged and used over and over again. In fact, according to a report filed with the federal Food and Drug Administration, it had been used at least once before. It is medicine's dirty little secret. Under pressure from HMOs, Medicare, and insurance companies to cut costs, thousands of U.S. hospitals are quietly recycling millions of disposable sawblades, biopsy forceps, and catheters for use in procedures from cardiac angioplasties to orthopedic surgery, putting unwitting patients at risk for injury, infection, and worse.
Proponents say the practice is safe and saves millions of dollars.
The full consequences of instrument recycling are impossible to determine, since direct cause and effect is difficult to prove and since patients are almost never told about reuse in the first place. But documents from the FDA, obtained by U.S. News, reveal numerous incidents of patients put at risk from what appear to be recycled disposable instruments that were contaminated or defective. Before disposable devices became commonplace in the 1980s, most medical instruments were made of glass, rubber, or metal and were meant to be reused. They were easy to clean and sterilize, but they limited the doctor's ability to perform delicate procedures. As plastics technology improved, devices became smaller, more flexible, and more intricate.