The Journal of hospital infection
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Our aim was to evaluate the impact of deep wound infection after hip fracture surgery on functional outcome and mortality. Two thousand, two hundred and seventy-six consecutive surgically treated patients with non-pathological fractures, aged over 50 years (mean age 78.3 years), were followed up prospectively. The 29 patients who had deep infection (rate 1.3%) and who received revision surgery were compared with controls without infection, matched for age, sex, residential status at fracture, fracture type, treatment method and walking ability. ⋯ Diabetes was more common in the patients with deep infection (P=0.038). Staphylococcus aureus was the most commonly isolated micro-organism, and it was associated with higher one-year mortality (57%) than the other bacteria (14.3%, P=0.014); the overall mortality of the infected patients and controls was 34.5% and 24.1% at one year, respectively (P=0.508). In conclusion, deep infection after a hip fracture operation impairs short-term functional outcome and slightly increases mortality, with an excess mortality rate of 10.4%.
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The aim of this prospective study was to analyse the incidence of nosocomial infections (NIs) during neutropenia after haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in paediatric and adult patients. Diagnosis of NI followed the modified surveillance protocol of the German National Reference Centre for Surveillance of NIs. During the 24-month study period, 38 and 39 transplantations were performed in paediatric and adult patients, respectively. ⋯ Of the clinically documented infections, Gram-positive organisms were isolated in 79%, Gram-negative organisms were isolated in 16% and fungi were isolated in 5%. Surveillance of NI is an effective instrument to control the quality of health care. It should focus on device-associated infections or specific high-risk targets such as nosocomial pneumonia.