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Summary The pharmacology, antimicrobial activity and clinical uses of cephalexin, a semi-synthetic derivative of cephalosporin C, are described. Cephalexin is active, when taken by mouth, against Gram-positive cocci, including penicillinase-producing staphylococci, and against many Gram-negative organisms including Gram-negative rods. There is a low incidence of side effects.

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Infection of wounds during hospitalisation often induces morbidity and sometimes mortality. The delay in patient recovery and subsequent increased length of hospital stay also has economic consequences. Standard techniques for microbiological detection are surface swabbing and wound biopsy culture. Surface swabbing is the most commonly used technique mainly because is quite inexpensive and is not invasive but can give only a representation of surface infection and analysis is also time consuming. Infected wounds are often characterised by an offensive odour that can be used as a diagnostic parameter. We report the results obtained by examining swabs and dressings taken from patients using a gas sensor array instrument developed as part of an EU funded project WOUNDMONITOR.