An outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa because of inadequate disinfection procedures in a urology unit: a pulsed-field gel electrophoresis-based epidemiologic study.

BACKGROUND: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen causing nosocomial infections in many hospitals. We aimed to investigate the source of urinary tract infections by determining clonal relationship of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE).
METHODS: During a 2-month period, all postoperative infections because of P aeruginosa were investigated in the Urology Department. Patient data were collected from medical records. Surveillance samples were obtained from various places in urological operating rooms. PFGE typing was performed for all P aeruginosa isolates.
RESULTS: A total of 14 P aeruginosa strains (12 from patients and 2 from environmental samples) were isolated. PFGE typing of these 14 strains yielded 2 possibly related clones, which differed from each other by 4 major bands. Ten of the patient isolates were clonally identical with the strains of 2 forceps.
CONCLUSION: Typing results confirmed that inadequately disinfected surgical devices can be the source of outbreak. After institution of infection control measures and education, no further clusters of P aeruginosa infection were detected in the Urology Department.