• Humans
• Prospective Studies
• Neurosurgical Procedures/adverse effects
• Anti-Infective Agents
• Neurosurgery
• Surgical Wound Infection/prevention & control
• Surgical Wound Infection/etiology
• Risk Factors
• Sepsis

• acute pancreatitis
• severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection
• vaccine

• COVID-19
• Competency model
• Infection prevention and control practitioners
• Nosocomial infection

• COVID-19
• Cross Infection/prevention & control
• Hospitals
• Humans
• Pandemics
• Reproducibility of Results
• SARS-CoV-2
• Surveys and Questionnaires

Aim: In 2017, the Institute for Quality Assurance and Transparency in Healthcare (IQTIG) introduced a quality assurance system for the surveillance of surgical site infections (SSI) on behalf the Federal Joint Committee. The establishment of the new system was made in parallel to existing methods, such as the “Krankenhaus-Infektions-Surveillance-System” (KISS). The aim of this work was to perform a comparative analysis.

Methods: All 2,233 cases at the University Medical Center Goettingen requiring an assessment of the presence of SSI as part of the IQTIG procedure in 2018 and 2019 were evaluated retrospectively according to the KISS protocol.

Results: In total, 2,050 patients were included in the comparative evaluation. Overall, 1,779 (79.7%) had a surgical anamnesis (surgery during the stay or in the past), and 1,716 (83.7%) showed identical results for both surveillance strategies. Different results were found for 334 patients (16.3%), with 160 of these (7.8%) positive for SSI according to IQTIG and 174 (8.5%) positive for KISS. Risk factors were identified for a discordant assessment between the methods.

Conclusion: The congruence of the two strategies was consistently high over the study period. There is evidence that the efficiency of the documentation algorithm can be increased without the loss of documentation of SSI, while preserving the precision of the documentation through training.

• IQTIG
• KISS
• infection surveillance
• surgical wound
• surgical wound infection

Background: Polytraumatized patients undergo a strong immunological stress upon insult. Phagocytes (granulocytes and monocytes) play a substantial role in immunological defense against bacteria, fungi and yeast, and in the clearance of cellular debris after tissue injury. We have reported a reduced monocytes phagocytic activity early after porcine polytrauma before. However, it is unknown if both phagocyte types undergo those functional alterations, and if there is a pathogen-specific phagocytic behavior. We characterized the phagocytic activity and capacity of granulocytes and monocytes after polytrauma.

Methods: Eight pigs (Sus scrofa) underwent polytrauma consisting of lung contusion, liver laceration, tibial fracture and hemorrhagic shock with fluid resuscitation and fracture fixation with external fixator. Intensive care treatment including mechanical ventilation for 72 h followed. Phagocytic activity and capacity were investigated using an in vitro ex vivo whole blood stimulation phagocytosis assays before trauma, after surgery, 24, 48, and 72 h after trauma. Blood samples were stimulated with Phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate and incubated with FITC-labeled E. coli, S. aureus or S. cerevisiae for phagocytosis assessment by flow cytometry.

Results: Early polytrauma-induced significant increase of granulocytes and monocytes declined to baseline values within 24 h. Percentage of E. coli-phagocytizing granulocytes significantly decreased after polytrauma and during further intensive care treatment, while their capacity significantly increased. Interestingly, both granulocytic phagocytic activity and capacity of S. aureus significantly decreased after trauma, although a recovery was observed after 24 h and yet was followed by another decrease. The percentage of S. cerevisiae-phagocytizing granulocytes significantly increased after 24 h, while their impaired capacity after surgery and 72 h later was detected. Monocytic E. coli-phagocytizing percentage did not change, while their capacity increased after 24–72 h. After a significant decrease in S. aureus-phagocytizing monocytes after surgery, a significant increase after 24 and 48 h was observed without capacity alterations. No significant changes in S. cerevisiae-phagocytizing monocytes occurred, but their capacity dropped 48 and 72 h.

Conclusion: Phagocytic activity and capacity of granulocytes and monocytes follow a different pattern and significantly change within 72 h after polytrauma. Both phagocytic activity and capacity show significantly different alterations depending on the pathogen strain, thus potentially indicating at certain and possibly more relevant infection causes after polytrauma.

• infection
• inflammation
• pathogen
• phagocytes
• trauma

• nosocomial infection
• healthcare professionals
• prevention and control

• Asymptomatic Infections
• COVID-19/epidemiology
• COVID-19/prevention & control
• COVID-19/transmission
• China
• Cross Infection/epidemiology
• Cross Infection/prevention & control
• Cross Infection/transmission
• Disinfection
• Hand Hygiene
• Health Personnel
• Hospitals
• Humans
• Medical Waste Disposal
• Personal Protective Equipment
• Quality of Life

Approximately 7 million people worldwide acquire a healthcare associated infection each year. Despite aggressive monitoring, hand washing campaigns and other infection control measures, nosocomial infections (NI) rates, especially those caused by antibiotic resistant pathogens, are unacceptably high worldwide. Additional ways to fight these infections need to be developed. A potential overlooked and neglected source of nosocomial pathogens are those found in non-intrusive soft and hard surfaces located in clinical settings. Soft surfaces, such as patient pyjamas and beddings, can be an excellent substrate for bacterial and fungal growth under appropriate temperature and humidity conditions as those present between patients and the bed. Bed making in hospitals releases large quantities of microorganisms into the air, which contaminate the immediate and non-immediate surroundings. Microbes can survive on hard surfaces, such as metal trays, bed rails and door knobs, for very prolonged periods of time. Thus soft and hard surfaces that are in direct or indirect contact with the patients can serve as a source of nosocomial pathogens. Recently it has been demonstrated that copper surfaces and copper oxide containing textiles have potent intrinsic biocidal properties. This manuscript reviews the recent laboratory and clinical studies, which demonstrate that biocidal surfaces made of copper or containing copper can reduce the microbiological burden and the NI rates.

• Nosocomial infections
• Health acquired infections
• Copper
• Copper oxide
• Biocides
• Surfaces
• Microbiological burden