Hospital Context Determinants of Variability in Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevalence: Multi-Level Analysis.

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) represent a major challenge in patient safety that affects services disproportionally. This paper aimed to assess how the HAI prevalence varies between hospital services and what contextual characteristics may explain such variance. A cross-sectional study was conducted on adult patients in Portuguese hospitals, using data from the European point prevalence survey of HAI prevalence.

Surveillance of surgical site infection after colorectal surgery: comprehensiveness and impact of risk factors.

Objective: The incidence of surgical site infection (SSI) is highest after colorectal surgery. We assessed the impact of risk factors for SSI using the population attributable fraction (PAF).

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Disseminated fungal infection in a patient with acute myeloid leukemia.

The case highlights the importance of actively obtaining informative samples at an early stage and of prompt initiation of combination therapy with antifungal drugs.

[Consensus on HPV of the Portuguese Society of Andrology, Sexual Medicine and Reproduction: Treatment].

The treatment of condyloma is generally a challenge in clinical practice. Although the spontaneous resolution rate is high, a significant proportion of patients seek treatment, not because of symptomatology, but mainly for aesthetic issues and concerns related to the transmission or worsening of existing lesions. The available treatments should be applied only for clinically evident macroscopic lesions.

Severe hyponatremia in older patients at admission in an internal medicine department.

Hyponatremia is common in older people, most often of multifactorial origin, and can be associated with poor clinical outcomes. The aim was to analyze the frequency of severe hyponatremia (sodium concentration below 125 mmol/L), risk factors and mortality association in hospitalized older patients. A retrospective study was performed in older patients (over 65 years) with hyponatremia, diagnosed at admission in an Internal Medicine Department during one year.

[Acute bacterial meningitis as an occupational disease].

Streptococcus suis is a zoonotic pathogen with worldwide distribution, responsible for more than 700 human cases globally reported. This infection affects mostly men, exposed to pig or pork, which leads to its usual classification as an occupational disease. We report a case of acute bacterial meningitis in a 44 years old male.

[Brucellar spondylodiscitis: case series of the last 25 years].

Introduction: Brucellosis is an endemic zoonosis in Portugal. Brucellar spondylodiscitis is one of the most frequent focal manifestations which may cause severe sequelae despite appropriate therapy.

Material And Methods: Retrospective study of patients with diagnosis of brucellar spondylodiscitis admitted to the Infectious Diseases Department of Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, over a 25-year period (1988-2012).

Isolated oral histoplasmosis presenting as Fever of unknown origin in a Portuguese hemodialysis patient.

The authors report a clinical case of an isolated oral histoplasmosis in a hemodialysis patient that presented with fever of unknown origin and had an unremarkable physical examination. During the investigation, a Gallium scan showed uptake in the oral cavity and soon after the oral cavity examination revealed a granulomatous lesion on the tooth 26. Histopathologic findings were compatible with histoplasmosis.