Effectiveness of a Chlorhexidine Dressing on Silver-coated External Ventricular Drain-associated Colonization and Infection: A Prospective Single-blinded Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial.

Background: Observational studies have shown that dressings containing chlorhexidine gluconate (CHX) lower the incidence external ventricular drain (EVD)-associated infections (EVDAIs). This prospective, randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies the efficacy of CHX-containing dressings in reducing bacterial colonization.

Methods: In this RCT, patients aged ≥18 years undergoing emergency EVD placement were randomly given either a CHX-containing or an otherwise identical control dressing at the skin exit wound.

Sonication for diagnosis of catheter-related infection is not better than traditional roll-plate culture: a prospective cohort study with 975 central venous catheters.

This prospective randomized controlled study with 975 nontunneled central venous catheters (CVCs) showed that the semiquantitative roll-plate culture technique (SQC) was as accurate as the sonication method for diagnosis of catheter-related infections. Sonication is difficult to standardize, whereas SQC is simpler, faster, and as reliable as the sonication method for culturing CVCs.

Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae: a threat from the kitchen.

Food is an established source of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae. Hand hygiene and cooking prevent transmission, but hands could be recontaminated by touching used cutting boards. ESBL-producing Escherichia coli were identified on 12% of cutting boards and 50% of gloves after poultry preparation, pointing to an important source for transmission.

Staphylococcus aureus in patients with rheumatoid arthritis under conventional and anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha treatment.

Objective: To compare the prevalence of nasal and oral Staphylococcus aureus in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with the prevalence in controls with other rheumatic diseases, and to determine predictors of S. aureus carriage and the influence of treatment with anti-tumor necrosis factor-a (anti-TNF-alpha) agents.

Methods: Eighty-one patients with RA and 83 other control patients of 2 outpatient rheumatology clinics were cultured for nasal and oral carriage of S.