D Adler-Klein | PubMed Health

PubMed2001

Candida osteomyelitis and diskitis after spinal surgery: an outbreak that implicates artificial nail use.

Postoperative wound infection after laminectomy is uncommon. In February 1997, 3 patients were confirmed to have postlaminectomy deep wound infections due to Candida albicans. No similar case had been seen during the previous 10 years. The infections were indolent, with a mean time from initial operation to diagnosis of 54 days (range, 26-83 days). All patients were successfully treated. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis revealed the Candida isolates to be identical. A case-controlled study and medical record review revealed that a single operating room technician scrubbed on all 3 infected case patients but on only 32% of the uninfected controls. The technician had worn artificial nails for a 3-month period that included the dates of laminectomy site infections, and C. albicans was isolated from her throat. She was treated with fluconazole and removed from duty. No subsequent cases have occurred during the ensuing 3 years. Artificial nails are known to promote subungual growth of gram-negative bacilli and yeast. This may be clinically relevant, and hospitals should enforce policies to prevent operating room personnel from wearing artificial nails.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

A vaccine consisting of recombinant Borrelia burgdorferi outer-surface protein A to prevent Lyme disease. Recombinant Outer-Surface Protein A Lyme Disease Vaccine Study Consortium.

BACKGROUND: Lyme disease is a multisystem inflammatory disease caused by infection with the tick-borne spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi and is the most common vector-borne infection in the United States. We assessed the efficacy of a recombinant vaccine consisting of outer-surface protein A (OspA) without adjuvant in subjects at risk for Lyme disease. METHODS: For this double-blind trial, 10,305 subjects 18 years of age or older were recruited at 14 sites in areas of the United States where Lyme disease was endemic; the subjects were randomly assigned to receive either placebo (5149 subjects) or 30 microg of OspA vaccine (5156 subjects). The first two injections were administered 1 month apart, and 7515 subjects also received a booster dose at 12 months. The subjects were observed for two seasons during which the risk of transmission of Lyme disease was high. The primary end point was the number of new clinically and serologically confirmed cases of Lyme disease. RESULTS: The efficacy of the vaccine was 68 percent in the first year of the study in the entire population and 92 percent in the second year among the 3745 subjects who received the third injection. The vaccine was well tolerated. There was a higher incidence of mild, self-limited local and systemic reactions in the vaccine group, but only during the seven days after vaccination. There was no significant increase in the frequency of arthritis or neurologic events in vaccine recipients. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, OspA vaccine was safe and effective in the prevention of Lyme disease.

Adolescent↗