Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Health officials allege doctor reused single-use needle guides

No known cases of disease transmission have been identified

Updated Tuesday, March 15, 2011 | 8:21 p.m.

Health officials announced Tuesday they are working to identify and notify certain patients who underwent prostate biopsies by Dr. Michael Kaplan after an investigation found single-use endocavity needle guides were reused in some cases.

No known cases of disease transmission have been identified, but it was determined that patient notification was warranted, the Southern Nevada Health District said in a news release.

The Health District and Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners are identifying patients who underwent the procedure from Dec. 20, 2010, to March 11, 2011. Kaplan, a urologist, has offices near Sunset Road and Mountain Vista Street in Henderson.

A joint investigation conducted by the Board of Medical Examiners and the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigation found Kaplan reused the needle guides while performing some of the biopsies, the Health District said.

Health officials are encouraging patients who had the procedure during the time period in question to speak with their personal physician about any concerns they may have.

The Health District will conduct a formal notification once the process of identifying patients is completed and recommendations based on the ongoing investigation are finalized.

The investigation comes after an unrelated medical scare in 2008 in which health officials said some 50,000 patients of an endoscopy center were possibly exposed to infectious diseases as a result of unhygienic practices.

The Health District in 2008 notified patients who had undergone procedures at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada between March 2004 and January 2008 that they were at risk for possible exposure.

The Health District said patients may have been infected when nurses and other staff reused syringes on patients.

The Southern Nevada Health District has linked nine hepatitis C cases to Dr. Dipak Desai’s Las Vegas Valley endoscopy clinics. The outbreak prompted health officials to recommend testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV to about 50,000 patients.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy