[Hospital infections in surgical wards]. / Zakazenia szpitalne w oddzialach zabiegowych.

Nosocomial infections are defined as these which develop during the patient's stay at hospital or shortly after its leaving. In Poland The Society of Nosocomial Infections has been trying to estimate the problem. To deal with it the card for registration of nosocomial infection has been developed. The data used in this project embraces the registration of the nosocomial infections in 1998. The registration cards were sent to the computer centre where they were analysed. 91 hospitals took part in the project. The material consisted of 301,813 cards. The number of patients taken into account in operative departments reached 170,036. In 2,384 cases nosocomial infections were discovered which is 1.4 per cent of all. Nosocomial infections were observed to be similarly frequent in regional hospitals and teashing hospitals. The immune system, not well developed (newborns) or weakened (old age) proroves the danger of nosocomial infection. The time of the infected patient's stay at hospital is twice longer than usually. It needs additional treatment, both operative and pharmacological, which is connected with high costs. The most common systems that usually get infected are respiratory, urinary and wounds. Clinical course of nosocomial infections is rather mild. The programme of nosocomial infections registration allows to better estimate the scale of the problem.

[Hospital infections in general surgery wards]. / Zakazenia szpitalne w oddzialach chirurgii ogólnej.

In 1997 the hospital infections programme was accepted by the National Association for Infectious Diseases (Polskie Towarzystwo Zakazen Szpitalnych--PTZSz). About 100 hospitals from Poland participated in the surveillence system introducing nosocomial infection registration cards in their units. The results of the research were sent to the PTZSz. The results from general surgery departments in 1998 were analysed. This year 79 general surgery units took part in nosocomial infection programme of PTZSz, sending from 1 to 2259 questionnaires. The analysis included 48,964 nosocomial infection registration cards. Nosocomial infection developed in 1,031 cases in the general surgery departments what accounted for 2.11% of all treated patient in that period. Surgical site infections were the most often place of nosocomial infections (37.1%), next skin and soft tissue infections (20.1%), and finally respiratory tract infections (17.6%). The average duration of hospitalization in general surgery departments was 10.2 days. In case of nosocomial infection occurrence the time of treatment was extended three times. The most frequent aetiological pathogenes of nosocomial infections were as follows: Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

High spectral resolution lidar to measure optical scattering properties of atmospheric aerosols. 1: theory and instrumentation.

A high spectral resolution lidar technique to measure optical scattering properties of atmospheric aerosols is described. Light backscattered by the atmosphere from a narrowband optically pumped oscillator-amplifier dye laser is separated into its Doppler broadened molecular and elastically scattered aerosol components by a two-channel Fabry-Perot polyetalon interferometer. Aerosol optical properties, such as the backscatter ratio, optical depth, extinction cross section, scattering cross section, and the backscatter phase function, are derived from the two-channel measurements.

High spectral resolution lidar to measure optical scattering properties of atmospheric aerosols. 2: calibration and data analysis.

The high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) measures optical properties of atmospheric aerosols by interferometrically separating the elastic aerosol backscatter from the Doppler broadened molecular contribution. Calibration and data analysis procedures developed for the HSRL are described. Data obtained during flight evaluation testing of the HSRL system are presented with estimates of uncertainties due to instrument calibration. HSRL measurements of the aerosol scattering cross section are compared with in situ integrating nephelometer measurements.