Annals of internal medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Prevention of infection in critically ill patients by selective decontamination of the digestive tract.
To determine whether selective decontamination of the digestive tract using oral and nonabsorbable antimicrobial agents and parenteral cefotaxime prevents infection in critically ill patients. ⋯ Selective decontamination of the digestive tract decreases subsequent infection rates, especially by gram-negative bacilli, in selected patients during long-term stays in the intensive care unit.
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Transmission of retroviruses from seronegative donors by transfusion during cardiac surgery. A multicenter study of HIV-1 and HTLV-I/II infections.
To evaluate the effectiveness of serologic testing of blood donors for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and human T-cell lymphotropic virus types I and II (HTLV-I/II) infections and to estimate the risk for transmission of HIV-1 and HTLV-I/II by transfusion of seronegative blood from screened donors. ⋯ Serologic screening of donors for antibodies to HIV-1 and HTLV-I coupled with exclusion of donors from groups having a relatively high risk for infection has led to a low incidence of transfusion-transmitted HIV-1 and HTLV-I/II infection in the United States. A small risk remains, however, despite these measures. We estimate the residual risk for HIV-1 and HTLV-II infection from transfusion of screened blood during the time of this study to be about 1 in 60,000 units.