Background: Despite endoscope reprocessing, residual droplets remain in digestive endoscope working channels. Inadequate drying of digestive endoscope working channels may promote microbial reproduction, increasing the risk of infection among patients. This review was designed to summarizes the current status of digestive endoscope and assesses effectiveness of drying methods in preventing residual droplets and microorganisms in digestive endoscope. Methods: The PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE up until 2025 were searched to identify eligible articles focused on methods of digestive endoscope drying and the status of endoscope drying. Revised JBI quality assessment tool was used to determine quality of each included article by two independent reviewers. Results: This review included 16 articles, six focused on residual droplets, six evaluated microbial growth, and four assessed both residual droplets and microbial growth following different digestive endoscope drying methods. Compare to single drying method, the combination of novel automated drying techniques and guideline-recommended conventional drying methods reported lower levels of residual fluid and microbial growth in endoscope channels. Conclusions: Automated drying, particularly with drying cabinets, reduces residual moisture and microbial contamination on digestive endoscopes more effectively than manual drying, warranting its inclusion in standard reprocessing protocols. Key Words: Contamination, drying, endoscopes, systematic review
Han et al. (Thu,) studied this question.