Original article
Neonatal infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa associated with a water-bath used to thaw fresh frozen plasma

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0195-6701(98)90296-1Get rights and content

Abstract

In our 15-bed neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), four new-borns were found to be colonized or infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa within a period of one week. To identify the outbreak source, three independent studies were performed: epidemiological investigation, environmental surveillance and genotypic typing of isolates. Although epidemiological investigation by a case—control study revealed no conclusive results, the transfusion of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) and human albumin (HA) appeared to be the factor with highest risk. Environmental surveillance and random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) of isolates identified a water-bath used to warm FFP and HA as the likely reservoir for the outbreak. Further spread of the organism did not occur after elimination of this water-bath from the NICU. RAPD identified in addition an isolate from an infant hospitalized in the NICU five months before the outbreak with a pattern matching the one of the outbreak cluster.

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    Storage at -80oC is recommended rather than -20oC to minimise sample degradation. Warm water baths have been recommended to speed thawing [6]; however, the working group thought that this should be strongly discouraged, as this may introduce risks of cross contamination by Pseudomonas species (and other contaminants) from the water bath [111,112], and may reduce bacterial viability in the FMT. Repetitive freeze thawing of FMT samples should be avoided as bacterial numbers will be reduced during this process [113].

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