OBJECTIVES: Repair costs are a hidden component of reusable scopes and the true economic burden of maintaining and repairing these expensive and highly utilized devices is not well-described in the literature. To better understand the ongoing repair expenses to a hospital’s scope fleet, a literature search was conducted to review the published evidence.

METHODS: We conducted a literature search using Medline for articles published globally between January 2010 and June 2021 that reported the repair costs of reusable scopes including bronchoscopes, ureteroscopes, fiberscopes, duodenoscopes, colonoscopes, and gastroscopes. These scopes were selected as commonly used devices in diagnostic and interventional procedures. Articles were excluded if repair costs weren’t specified.

RESULTS: Of the 26 retrieved articles, 18 met the inclusion criteria (11 bronchoscopy studies, 7 ureteroscopy studies). 17 publications were single-center analyses while 1 publication sent a questionnaire about repair rates and costs for reusable bronchoscopes to US, German, and UK hospitals. The mean repair costs to the hospitals from the questionnaire were USD $4275 per repair for US hospitals, USD $4285 for German hospitals, and USD $1757 in UK hospitals. Among the other studies, repair causes included failed leak tests, tears, cloudy lens, and broken optic fibers. The costs per case of repair ranged from USD $148 to USD $7521 in US hospitals, and €213 - €5956 in European hospitals.

CONCLUSIONS: The ongoing repair costs of reusable scopes are often opaque to hospital administrators, yet significantly add to the economic burden of hospitals globally. This may be especially true at teaching hospitals and high-volume medical centers. Given pressure to improve cost efficiency in the healthcare system, these results indicate hospitals assess their repair costs and consider transitioning to single-use scopes to reduce future expense.