Contamination risk of the surgical team through ROBODOC's high-speed cutter.

During cutting of the femoral cavity in the ROBODOC procedure, an aerosol cloud of irrigation fluid, blood, and tissue debris was seen. This cloud potentially is contaminated with bacterial and viral vectors, which is an infection risk for the surgical team. A flat and a ball cutter were tested in four standard situations macroscopically with a colored solution.

Effects of adequate versus inadequate treatment of cutaneous manifestations of Lyme borreliosis on the incidence of late complications and late serologic status.

Eighty-two patients who were treated at the Department of Dermatology, Innsbruck, Austria, from 1980 to 1987 for cutaneous manifestations of Lyme disease were subjected to a clinical follow-up investigation aimed at detecting dermatologic, neurologic, and internal late complications of borreliosis. Only 54 of these patients had received adequate antibiotic treatment according to current standards. Also, their sera were investigated for the presence of immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM Borrelia burgdorferi antibodies by an indirect immunofluorescence assay, three different enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, and immunoblotting.