Clostridium difficile in a department of surgery.

The colonization and transmission of Clostridium difficile strains was investigated at the Department of Surgery. Anaerobes were isolated from fecal samples of 27 patients among 308 investigated (mean age: 59.5 years). The majority of them (22 out of 27 patients) received anti-microbial agents prior to investigation for Clostridium difficile. Eighteen of them had undergone various surgical procedures including laparotomies. Only four Clostridium difficile positive patients had diarrhea, but pseudomembranes were not observed endoscopically. The highest colonization rate of C. difficile (20/27) was found to occur in autumn. All 54 samples from medical personnel were C. difficile free. C. difficile was isolated in 7% of samples taken from hospital environment. Toxigenicity of Clostridium difficile strains isolated from fecal samples taken from patients and from environment was 78% and 80%, respectively, as determined by cytotoxicity tissue assay, or 70% and 20%, respectively, in the latex agglutination test.