Since mother to child transmissions of hepatitis C virus (HCV) have been reported to be low, teams involved in assisted reproductive technologies have accepted HCV positive patients into their programmes. We report in the present paper two cases of undoubted patient to patient HCV transmission while patients were attending for assisted conception. In both cases, HCV genotyping and sequencing of the first hypervariable region of the HCV genome provided molecular evidence for nosocomial transmission. Investigations made to elucidate the route of contamination have shown that the most likely route of contamination is through healthcare workers. Such nosocomial HCV infection has been reported in other healthcare situations, mainly in dialysis units, and physical proximity was also suspected to be at the origin of the infection. We conclude that assisted reproduction teams must be very prudent when including such patients in their programmes.
The purpose of this study was to compare smooth muscle content of anterior vaginal wall in women with pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and control subjects. Specimens were taken in the midline from the apex of anterior vaginal cuff from eleven women with POP and eight control subjects operated for hysterectomy without prolapse. Masson's trichrome stain was used to determine the distribution of collagen in the extracellular matrix of the vaginal muscularis and to quantify the collagen in area of interest. Slides of alpha smooth muscle actin were detected using antibodies. Morphometric analysis was used to compare and to quantify the smooth muscle content of the vaginal muscularis. Fractional area of nonvascular vaginal smooth muscle of women with POP was significantly decreased in comparison to control subjects (41.9 vs 61.9%, p = 0.005). Fractional area of connective tissue was significantly increased (56.8 vs 35%, p = 0.004). Fractional area of blood vessels was similar (2.2 vs 3.4%, p = 0.20).
Ninety patients were included in this prospective randomized trial. Each required electric colorectal surgery and was prepared for operation with oral preoperative antibiotic therapy, systemic peroperative therapy, or by a combination of both. The number of each type of septic postoperative complication and their total did not differ between the group treated by oral antibiotics prior to operation and the group treated peroperatively with systemic antibiotic therapy. The total number of septic complications (wall abscesses, fistulas, subdiaphragmatic abscesses, septicemia, peritonitis), however, was significantly less (P less than 0.05) in the group treated by both preoperative oral antibiotics and peroperative systemic antibiotic therapy (3.3 per cent) than in either groups treated only orally preoperatively (30 per cent) or by systemic antibiotic therapy during the operation (23 per cent). The combination of oral antibiotic therapy prior to operation and of systemic peroperative antibiotic therapy, therefore, presents the most effective prophylactic effectiveness.
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