South Dakota: Patients at Clinic Tested for Possible Infection

The state Health Department said that Wednesday more than 5,000 patients who underwent cystoscopy procedures at Siouxland Urology Center in Dakota Dunes may have been exposed to blood-borne diseases. A routine inspection of the facility indentified the potential for infection due to single-use products like saline solution bags and tubing being used on multiple patients before being discarded, department officials said. The practice was immediately halted; corrective measures were taken; and patients are now being notified, they added.

Siouxland Urology's Web site acknowledges backflow of fluid through a tube could potentially contaminate the extended tubing and saline bag. Doctors regularly monitored for potential backflow and discarded the tubing and fluid system if it was detected, the site notes.

The center is offering free testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV. "Though the risk to our patients of exposure to any virus here is minimal, we are offering free blood tests to patients who received cystoscopic procedures at our Dakota Dunes location between March 23, 2002, and Jan. 26, 2009, and at our outreach locations between Jan. 26, 2007, and Jan. 26, 2009, to put to rest any concerns regarding these issues," a notice on the site says.

Patients and their referring physicians are being notified by letter of the exposure risk and free testing. "The risk is quite low. But as a precaution, we wanted to make sure those patients are notified of that potential so they could be tested," said Barb Buhler of the state Health Department. "We would certainly encourage them to get that testing so that if there is something, it's detected, but basically to rule out that they have anything."

For additional information, telephone the center at 1-888-718-3456 or visit www.siouxlandurologycenter.com.

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