Comparison of Methods for Cleaning Enteral Feeding Tube Junctions of the New International Standard (ISO 80369-3)

INTRODUCTION: International standards for enteral feeding involving the use of feeding tubes with junctions have been introduced. If these junctions are not properly cleaned, they can become contaminated, leading to microbial infections. We aimed to compare the ease and effectiveness of cleaning of four methods using the number of bacteria. METHODS: We compared enteral nutrition tube junctions cleaned using four methods such as water, toothbrush, cotton swab, and EnClean® brush with an uncleaned control. Once daily for 7 days, the tubes were injected with nutrients, cleaned, and incubated at 37°C. Samples for bacterial culture were collected before injections on days 7, 14, 21, and 28. The culture samples were incubated at 37°C for 48 h, and the number of colonies was counted. RESULTS: The number of residual bacteria on day 28 did not differ between the four cleaning methods and the control group. Moreover, no significant difference was observed in bacterial counts among the four wash methods. The number of washes did not differ among cleaning methods. CONCLUSION: The bacterial count in the ISO-standardized tube junction increased, and none of the cleaning methods decreased the counts.