Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

A Hambraeus

Publications and source records attributed to A Hambraeus.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Isolation of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria from clean surgical wounds: an experimental and clinical study.

A pad imprint method was evaluated for quantitative sampling of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria from clean surgical wounds. The best recovery of bacteria from the pads was obtained when they were treated with a rinsing solution in a 'Stomacher' apparatus. Pads of three different fabrics were compared, but no difference was noted in their efficiency in sampling anaerobic and aerobic bacteria from clean surgical wounds. Sampling of known quantities of Staphylococcus aureus from experimental wounds in rabbits performed with the pad method gave a threefold better recovery than with a swab. The pad method was superior to the wound wash-out method when sampling wounds in hip surgery.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Is a bed centre in a hospital a hygienic hazard?

The contamination of linen and air in a bed centre, supply station and ward were compared, as well as the contamination of gowns used by the staff working in the 'clean' and the 'dirty' rooms of the bed-centre. The contamination of linen and air was low and there was no significant difference between the tested areas. The contamination on gowns used by the staff working in the 'dirty' room was significantly higher than that on gowns used by the staff working in the 'clean' room. This stresses the importance of dividing a bed centre into 'clean' and 'dirty' rooms. So organized, a bed centre does not seem to be a hygienic hazard.

Air Microbiology↗
PubMed1982

Dispersal of non-sporeforming anaerobic bacteria from the skin.

Dispersal of non-sporeforming anaerobic bacteria was studied. Skin samples were taken from the subjects, and dispersed from different parts of the body was examined. The number of anaerobic bacteria dispersed was not correlated to their density on the surface of skin area exposed. The highest density of anaerobic bacteria on the skin was found in the face and upper trunk, but the highest yield of anaerobic bacteria dispersed came from the lower trunk. The dominant anaerobic bacteria dispersed were Propionibacterium acnes, but Propionibacterium avidum, Propionibacterium granulosum and Gram-positive cocci were also isolated from the dispersal samples. Peptococcus magnus was the most common coccus isolated. For the less frequently isolated bacteria, the best correlation was found between the perineal flora and airborne bacteria. A comparison was also made of bacterial dispersal by naked and dressed subjects. The dispersal of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria was higher when the subjects were dressed in conventional operating theatre cotton clothing than when they were naked. The increased dispersal of anaerobic bacteria when the subjects were dressed was mainly due to increased dispersal of Propionibacterium sp.

Actinomycetales↗
PubMed1980

Airborne non-sporeforming anaerobic bacteria.

A large proportion of postoperative infections after clean surgery are thought to be exogenous. For aerobic bacteria different routes of transmission have been thoroughly studied. Airborne infection has been considered very important in infections after total hip replacement (Charnley, 1972). Anaerobic non-sporing bacteria have been found in deep late infections after total hip replacement (Kamme et al. 1974; Schwan et al. 1977; Petrini, Nord & Welin-Berger, 1978). However, infections caused by anaerobic bacteria have been considered endogenous, and little is known about the routes of transmission for these bacteria. The aim of this investigation has been to study the survival of anaerobic non-sporeforming bacteria in the air and environment to make it possible to study their routes of transmission in the operating room later.

Aerobiosis↗
PubMed1979

Wound infections after surgery in a modern operating suite: clinical, bacteriological and epidemiological findings.

A prospective study of 2983 operations in general and orthopaedic surgery during 3 years performed in four operating theatres in a modern operating suite was carried out in order to evaluate the importance of airborne infection. Weekly nose-and-throat samples were taken from the surgical staff and pre-operative samples were taken from the nose, throat, skin and perineum of the patients. The air contamination was followed by using settle plates, which showed low mean counts of total bacteria of between 9 and 15 c.f.u./m(2)/min, with mean counts of Staph. aureus of between 0.03 and 0.06 c.f.u./m(2)/min. No correlation was found between the total number of bacteria and the incidence of post-operative infections or between the amount of Staph. aureus in the air and post-operative Staph. aureus infections. It was concluded that further increases in ventilation could, at best, only marginally affect the incidence of post-operative infection.The post-operative wound-infection rate was 9.0%. In various types of surgery, the infection rates varied from 5.3% in clean operations to 47.6% in dirty surgery. About one third of the infections were classified as moderate or severe.Adverse patient factors, such as immunodeficiency, steroid treatment, intensive care, etc., increased the rate to 15.0%; in ;normal' patients it was 3.8%.Among the bacteria isolated, gram-negative bacilli (31% of wounds), often together with other bacteria, and Staph. aureus (28%) predominated, but in 25% no specimens were taken.Of 76 post-operative Staph. aureus infections, 32 were caused by the patients' own strains, and of the remaining 44 infections, 22, or 8% of all infections, could be traced to strains present in the air and/or the respiratory tracts of staff during the operation.The length of pre-operative hospital stay had no influence on the carrier rate of Staph. aureus in patients. The incidence of post-operative wound infection was significantly higher in patients carrying Staph. aureus and was even higher if these bacteria were found on the skin.Patients with wound infections stayed, on an average, 15 days longer than patients without infections. In serious infections the increase in duration of stay was > 20 days. Although infections were commoner in older patients, the average additional hospital stay of infected patients did not increase with age. If the post-operative infections studied in a concurrent retrospective study are taken into account more than 12 000 bed-days were due to post-surgical wound infections in the period studied or, in other words, some 12 beds (corresponding to 5.5% of the total) were always occupied by infected patients.

Air Microbiology↗
PubMed1979

An instrument for measuring bacterial penetration through fabrics used for barrier clothing.

A new instrument has been designed to measure the penetration by rubbing of bacteria from cloth contaminated in the nursing of burn patients through fabrics designed for barrier garments. Most fabrics tested dry reduced the transfer of bacteria from the source cloth to about 10%, irrespective of the results of air filter tests, which agrees with mock nursing results. When the fabrics were tested against a wet surface, the transfer of bacteria rapidly reached 100% if the fabrics had a high wettability, but was slower for fabrics with a low wettability. Through closely woven waterproofed cotton, transfer was 5--25%, but increased three- to four-fold after ten launderings, in line with the water absorption. Transfer through plastic-laminated material was less than 1%. The results suggest that barrier garments should be made either of plastic or of recently waterproofed closely woven cotton at points of contact between nurse and patient where the clothes may be wetted by bacteria-containing wound secretions.

Asepsis↗
PubMed1979

The influence of different footwear on floor contamination.

The importance of walking as a source of floor contamination and the influence of different footwear routines on floor contamination was evaluated. The contamination of a floor due to walking was about 16 times higher than contamination of the floor due to sedimentation only, measured with impression plates. No significant difference in floor contamination could be seen with different footwear (ordinary shoes, clean shoes, shoe covers). In all experiments the amount of bacteria, was low in the morning and increased in the middle of the day when a steady state seemed to be reached. The number of Staphylococcus aureus continued to increase. A footwear regimen is only recommended in areas where floors are cleaned frequently during the day as in operating wards.

Bacteria↗
PubMed1978

Bacterial contamination in a modern operating suite, 2. Effect of a zoning system on contamination of floors and other surfaces.

In this investigation the bacterial contamination of surfaces such as walls and floors in a modern operating suite, together with surfaces of lamps in the operating theatres, and the clogs worn by staff, was studied. Counts of colony-forming units were made on impression plates containing blood-agar with Tween 80 for total bacterial counts, Baird Parker medium with egg yolk and tellurite for Staphylococcus aureus and trypticase peptone agar with neomycin and polymyxin for Clostridium spp. The areas examined were divided into the patients' route to the operating theatre, the staff's route, and the central area containing the operating rooms, anaesthetic rooms, and exit and scrub-up areas. In the patients' route counts of total organisms ranged from about 10000 to 30000/m2; for Staph. aureus the range was from 70 to 540/m2. In the staff's route the highest count was about 70000/m2 in the dressing area, and the numbers of Staph. aureus were about the same as along the patients' route. In the inner zone the counts were somewhat lower for both total organisms and Staph. aureus. Total counts on the floor from all areas of the inner zone were significantly higher just before the second operation than before the first operation on the same day. The total and Staph. aureus counts on walls, floors and lamps were the same after clean operations as after operations classified as "contaminated" or "dirty".

Air Microbiology↗
PubMed1978

Bacterial contamination in a modern operating suite. 3. Importance of floor contamination as a source of airborne bacteria.

The redispersal factor for bacteria-carrying particles from a contaminated floor was determined after mopping, blowing and walking activity. Walking gave the highest redispersal factor, 3.5 X 10(-3) m-1, which was three times higher than for blowing and 17 times higher than for mopping. The mean die-away rate for the bacteria-carrying particles used was 1.9/h without ventilation and 14.3/h with ventilation. It was calculated that in the operating rooms less than 15% of the bacteria found in the air were redispersed floor bacteria.

Air Microbiology↗
PubMed1978

Bacterial contamination in a modern operating suite. 4. Bacterial contamination of clothes worn in the suite.

Clean clothes in the staff dressing rooms were heavily contaminated with bacteria, mainly Bacillus sp., but Staphylococcus aureus were found on 14% and Clostridium sp. on 10% of the garments examined. A comparison of the occurrence of Staph. aureus on shirts worn by staff in wards and operating departments showed ward shirts to be contaminated more heavily and with more strains. Examination of sterile gowns worn by surgeons showed that 70% were contaminated with Staph. aureus after operation. Of the strains isolated 31% were identical with those carried by the surgeon or by the patient operated on, but for the remainder no source could be found.

Bacillus↗
PubMed1978

Listeria encephalitis in five renal transplant recipients.

Listeria encephalitis has occurred recently in 5 renal transplant recipients at the Transplantation Unit in Stockholm. Symptoms from the central nervous system, such as coma, hemiparesis and cranial nerve paresis, dominated the clinical picture. Listeria monocytogenes was isolated from the blood of all the patients, from the cerebrospinal fluid in two, from the urine in one and post mortem from the brain in one patient. Pleocytosis never exceeded 200 leucocytes/mm3 and the glucose ratio was normal or near normal. Complement fixation test for Listeria was negative in all 5 patients. Four patients expired in spite of treatment with large doses of penicillin and other antibiotics to which the isolated strains were sensitive in vitro. At autopsy, inflammation and necrosis were observed in the brain, especially the brain stem, and there was mild lymphocytic infiltration of the meninges. The surviving patient was treated with a combination of chloramphenicol and ampicillin.

Adult↗