[Vaccination status and factors associated with pneumococcal vaccination in geriatric short-stay care].

Nearly two-thirds of geriatric short-stay patients were eligible for pneumococcal vaccination. Among patients eligible for vaccination, less than 5 % had received at least one injection of pneumococcal vaccine on admission. We found no modifiable factors associated with vaccination status, but several avenues for improving vaccination coverage.

[Screening diabetic retinopathy using a telediagnosis system. Results of the upper Rhine survey].

Introduction: The aim of this study was to present the results of diabetic retinopathy screening using a nonmydriatic fundus camera in the upper Rhine (France).

Method: The screening period took place from September 2004 to December 2007. Patients came to three referring medical centers (Altkirch, Mulhouse, Thann) and all had three fundus photographs on both eyes without pupillary dilatation.

Peripheral blood and BM CD34+ CD38- cells show better resistance to cryopreservation than CD34+ CD38+ cells in autologous stem cell transplantation.

Background: We and others have shown a critical role for CD34+ CD38- cells in hematopoietic recovery after autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), in particular for platelet reconstitution. Thus a routine assessment of CD34+ CD38- cells in freezing-thawing procedures for autografting could represent an important tool for predicting poor engraftment.

Methods: To compare the impact of cryopreservation on CD34+ CD38+ and CD34+ CD38- hematopoietic stem cell subsets, 193 autograft products collected in 84 patients with malignancies were assessed before controlled-rate cryopreservation in 10% DMSO and after thawing for autografting.

Evaluation of current practices in surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis in primary total hip prosthesis--a multicentre survey in private and public French hospitals.

Deep wound infection is a rare but dreaded postoperative complication after total hip prosthesis (THP) procedures but its incidence can be reduced by systemic antimicrobial prophylaxis. The objective of the present study was to evaluate whether antimicrobial prophylaxis for elective primary THP in patients without any history of hip infection, in orthopaedic wards, participating on a voluntary basis, in French public hospitals and private institutions, complies with published guidelines. Three types of data were collected from anaesthetic and surgical records (November 2000-January 2001) in participating hospitals: (1) administrative data on the hospitals and orthopaedic wards, (2) data on patients, (3) data on compliance of practices with five critical criteria derived from published French guidelines.