A point prevalence survey of hospital-acquired infections and antimicrobial use in a paediatric hospital in north-western Russia.

We carried out a one-day prevalence survey of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial use in February 2006 in a paediatric hospital in Arkhangelsk, north-western Russia. A total 472 patients aged less than 18 years old were included in the study, of which 395 (84%) had been inpatients in the hospital for at least 48 h on the study day. The overall prevalence of HAI amongst the latter group of patients was 17% [67/395; 95% confidence interval (CI): 13.8-21.2] with upper respiratory tract infections being most frequently diagnosed (45%), followed by lower respiratory tract infections (19%) and urinary tract infections (12%). The highest proportion of HAI was found in patients less than one year old and in those with hospital stays of longer than 10 days. Antimicrobial agents were given to 39% of all hospitalized patients (183/472; 95% CI: 34.5-43.2). Cephalosporins accounted for 39% (82/211) of all antimicrobial prescriptions, followed by the penicillins (22%; 46/211). This study established a baseline for surveillance of HAI and antimicrobial use within the hospital, and facilitated the adoption of targeted infection control measures.

[Case of intestinal adenocarcinoma].

The article describes the clinical picture and particular features of the diagnostics of the neoplastic process with uncommon localization--intestinal adenocarcinoma. The authors present their own observations.

[Side effects of current anti-Helicobacter therapy]. / Pobochnye deistviia sovremennoi antikhelikobakternoi terapii.

The article deals with side effects of present-day antihelicobacter therapy including side effects of some drugs with antisecretory and antibacterial action and complications observed in using combined treatment of helicobacteriosis (triple and quadrotherapy).

[The characteristics of the hypotensive effect of combined cryo- and interference therapy in arterial hypertension patients]. / Osobennosti gipotenzivnogo éffekta sochetannoi kriointerferentsterapii u bol'nykh arterial'noi gipertoniei.

Cryotherapy was combined with interference currents in the treatment of 93 patients with mild and moderate hypertension. Compared to single use of these factors, their combination potentiates hypotensive effect, i.e. lowers systolic and diastolic pressure already after the first procedure, stabilizes it after 3-4 procedures.

[Surgical treatment of injuries to the distal sections and terminal branches of the brachial plexus in traumatic shoulder dislocations]. / Khirurgicheskoe lechenie povrezhdenii distal'nykh otdelov i konechnykh vetvei plechevogo spleteniia pri travmaticheskikh vyvikhakh plecha.

Twenty-one patients with injury to the brachial plexus suffered as the result of traumatic dislocation of the shoulder were examined and operated on with the use of microsurgical techniques. Traumatic changes of the nerve trunks, the development of a cicatricial-adhesive process around and within them lead to stable disorders of conduction which do not yield to nonoperative treatment. Stable traumatic changes revealed in the nerve trunks on EMG in the first 4-6 weeks after the trauma as well as the absence of an effect of nonoperative treatment within this period of time were indications for surgery. Despite the coarse macroscopic external changes found in the nerves of the brachial plexus they should not be resected without preliminary intratruncal inspection of the fasciculi with intraoperative electrodiagnosis.