Bouffant vs Skull Cap and Impact on Surgical Site Infection: Does Operating Room Headwear Really Matter?

Background: The American College of Surgeons guidelines indicate that skull caps are acceptable, and the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses recommends bouffant caps. However, no scientific evidence has shown a significant advantage in surgical site infection (SSI) reduction with either cap. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of surgical cap choice on SSIs.

Impact of Hair Removal on Surgical Site Infection Rates: A Prospective Randomized Noninferiority Trial.

Background: Despite substantial prevention efforts, surgical site infections (SSIs) remain the most common health care-associated infection. It is unclear whether the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation to leave hair intact preoperatively reduces SSIs.

Study Design: A single-center, prospective, randomized, clinical trial was conducted from October 2009 to February 2015 in a 325-bed multispecialty, tertiary care teaching hospital to test the noninferiority of clipping hair to no hair removal in the prevention of SSIs.

Borrelia miyamotoi Infection in Patients from Upper Midwestern United States, 2014-2015.

We confirmed Borrelia miyamotoi infection in 7 patients who had contracted an illness while near La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA, an area where Ixodes scapularis ticks are endemic. B. miyamatoi infection should now be considered among differential diagnoses for patients from the midwestern United States who have signs and symptoms suggestive of tickborne illness.

The Emergence of Clinically Relevant Babesiosis in Southwestern Wisconsin.

Objective: To determine the frequency and characteristics of babesiosis cases, and to assess the impact of the introduction of a tick-borne infection diagnostic panel on babesiosis diagnosis in the region surrounding La Crosse, Wisconsin, where babesiosis in non-travelers was previously rare.

Methods: In the spring of 2013, we conducted a point-in-time survey of Ixodes scopuloris ticks for the presence of Babesia microti. We also conducted a retrospective study of all babesiosis cases diagnosed in our health system between January 1, 2004, and November 1, 2013.

Executive Summary: 2015 Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Native Vertebral Osteomyelitis in Adults.

These guidelines are intended for use by infectious disease specialists, orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, radiologists, and other healthcare professionals who care for patients with native vertebral osteomyelitis (NVO). They include evidence and opinion-based recommendations for the diagnosis and management of patients with NVO treated with antimicrobial therapy, with or without surgical intervention.

2015 Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Native Vertebral Osteomyelitis in Adults.

These guidelines are intended for use by infectious disease specialists, orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, radiologists, and other healthcare professionals who care for patients with native vertebral osteomyelitis (NVO). They include evidence and opinion-based recommendations for the diagnosis and management of patients with NVO treated with antimicrobial therapy, with or without surgical intervention.

Long-term outcome of pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis: a cohort study of 260 patients.

Background: The long-term outcome of patients with pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis (PVO) has not been fully assessed.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study to describe the long-term outcome of PVO and to assess risk factors for treatment failure in patients evaluated at our institution between 1994 and 2002. Patients were observed until July 1, 2013.

Functional outcomes in patients with Borrelia burgdorferi reinfection.

When Lyme disease is treated with appropriate antibiotic therapy in the early stages, long-term outcomes are good. However, a few patients have persistent symptoms despite appropriate therapy. Whether these patients' symptoms are any different from those of patients with reinfection is unclear.

Expansion of the Midwestern focus for human granulocytic anaplasmosis into the region surrounding La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the causative agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), shares the same enzootic life cycle as Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. Although La Crosse, WI, is a well-recognized Lyme disease focus with an abundance of Ixodes scapularis vector ticks and the first documentation of HGA occurred in patients from northwestern Wisconsin, local transmission of A. phagocytophilum has not to date been documented.

Rapid decline of OspC borreliacidal antibodies following treatment of patients with early Lyme disease.

We determined whether the levels of OspC borreliacidal antibodies declined following treatment of early Lyme disease and whether the OspC7 peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) could be used as an alternative test for detecting the response. Serum samples were collected from 37 subjects at the onset of illness and 2 and 6 months after treatment with doxycycline. The ELISA detected IgM and IgG OspC7 antibodies within 2 months in 18 (49%) and 5 (14%) sera, respectively.

The effect of residual osteomyelitis at the resection margin in patients with surgically treated diabetic foot infection.

The appropriate antibiotic treatment of surgically resected diabetic foot osteomyelitis is controversial. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the prognostic impact of residual osteomyelitis at the surgical margin of surgically resected diabetic foot osteomyelitis, and to assess the effectiveness of postoperative antibiotic therapy for residual osteomyelitis after surgical resection of infected bone. Of the 111 patients included in the study, 39 (35.

Appropriately prescribing antibiotics for patients with pharyngitis: a physician-based approach vs a nurse-only triage and treatment algorithm.

Objective: To assess the safety and appropriateness of antibiotic use in adult patients with pharyngitis who opted for a nurse-only triage and treatment algorithm vs patients who underwent a physician-directed clinical evaluation.

Patients And Methods: Using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes to query the electronic medical record database at our institution, a large multispecialty health care system in LaCrosse, WI, we identified adult patients diagnosed as having pharyngitis from September 1, 2005, through August 31, 2007. Diagnosis, treatment, and outcome data were collected retrospectively.

Antibiotic treatment duration and long-term outcomes of patients with early lyme disease from a lyme disease-hyperendemic area.

Background: The length of antibiotic therapy and long-term outcomes in patients with early Lyme disease are incompletely described. We report the long-term clinical outcomes of patients with early localized and early disseminated Lyme disease based on the duration of antibiotic therapy prescribed.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study and follow-up survey of patients diagnosed as having early localized and early disseminated Lyme disease from 1 January 2000 through 31 December 2004 was conducted in a Lyme disease-hyperendemic area.

Truffle's revenge: a pig-eating fungus.

A 77-year-old female initially presented with symptomatic mitral valve stenosis involving a bioprosthesis that had been implanted 8 months earlier for myxomatous mitral valve disease and severe valvular regurgitation. The patient was taken for a second mitral valve replacement due to stenosis. Intraoperatively, the bioprosthetic mitral valve was noted to have an unusual clot-like mass on the atrial side.

Propionibacterium acnes vertebral osteomyelitis: seek and ye shall find?

The pathogenic potential of Propionibacterium acnes in implant-associated spine infections is increasingly recognized. However, the clinical findings and outcomes associated with this pathogen in nonimplant-associated spine infections are unknown. We retrospectively reviewed nine male patients who met our strict case definition for P.

The management and outcome of spinal implant infections: contemporary retrospective cohort study.

Background: Spinal implant infections provide unique diagnostic and therapeutic challenges.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate risk factors for treatment failure in patients with early- and late-onset spinal implant infections at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) during 1994-2002.

Results: We identified 30 patients with early-onset spinal implant infection and 51 patients with late-onset spinal implant infection.