Can dialyzers from patients testing positive with hepatitis B or hepatitis C surface antigens be reprocessed?
A. The 1993 edition of the AAMI guidelines on “Reuse of Hemodialyzers” (which was adopted by HCFA as Final Rule in October of 1995) states in Section 6, “dialyzers should not be reprocessed from patients who have tested positive with hepatitis B surface antigens.” According to the Federal Register Vol. 60, No. 180, this decision to prohibit the reuse of dialyzers from patients testing positive for hepatitis B was developed by the medical community and reflects the general concern of most professionals that extreme caution is necessary in treating patients with the disease. The Centers for Disease Control state, in the National Surveillance of Dialysis Associated Diseases in the United States, 1996, that dialysis patients with non-A, non-B hepatitis should be treated with the same precautions used for all patients, following the 1996 standard precautions. The CDC also noted that patients who are positive for anti-C HCV or have a diagnosis of non-A, non-B hepatitis do not have to be isol
