Prospective assessment of the efficacy of the EAU guidelines for the prevention of nosocomial acquired infections after genitourinary surgery in a district hospital.

Objectives: To evaluate incidence and risk factors for nosocomial acquired infections in an urology ward after the application of the European Association of Urology (EAU) guidelines for surgical prophylaxis after genitourinary surgery in a district hospital.

Methods: A three-month survey was performed according with the definitions and methods of the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System. The study was conducted at the Urology Unit of a district hospital of about 800 care beds.

Surveillance of legionellosis within a hospital in northern Italy: May 1998 to September 1999.

The incidence of legionella infection in Europe overall in 1997 was 3.9 cases per million population, with the lowest rates reported by Malta and Norway and the highest by Denmark. Ninety cases were reported in Italy (1.

Quantification of gentamicin in Mueller-Hinton agar by high-performance liquid chromatography.

The aim of this study was to optimise a method for gentamicin determination in an agar matrix and to investigate if and how agar composition can affect the gentamicin diffusion kinetics during the agar diffusion tests for antibiotics sensitivity. Gentamicin was separated by RP-HPLC and detected at 365 nm after pre-column derivatization with 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene. Recovery (> or = 79%), linearity (r2 > or = 0.

[Prevention and control of Legionella infection in the hospital environment].

An outbreak of nosocomial legionnaires' disease in a hospital of Northern Italy is described, together with the epidemiological survey and the control measures adopted. Two patients developed Legionella pneumophila (serogroup 1) pneumonia, one (immunodepressed) died. The Task Group organised by the Health Service excluded other previous nosocomial infections, and made controls on patients and personnel of at risk units (all negative).