Abstract
The results of three years of bacteriological monitoring in the Department of Paediatric Surgery at the Ospedale Maggiore Ca'Granda in Milan are reported. The tests carried out involved the patients (faeces, urine, and pus cultures), the environment (operating theatre, incubators), and healthy carriers (upper respiratory tract of nursing and paramedical staff). The aetiopathogenesis of the post-operative infectious complications that occurred in 1974-1975 was investigated with the aid of surveys of the causative pathogens, the type of the surgical interventions, the atmospheric pollution in the operating theatre (mean indicative values), the number of operations per month, and the frequency of positive findings among the carriers. As a parallel investigation, between 1971 and the time of writing of this report the authors monitored the resistance to gentamicin of bacteria belonging to the family Pseudomonadaceae isolated from patients, in view of the constant threat posed by the vicinity of the burns department.
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