The quality of reprocessing gastroscopes, colonoscopes and duodenoscopes in daily routine of 25 endoscopy departments in hospitals and 30 doctors with their own practices was evaluated by microbiological testing in the HYGEA interventional study. In 2 test periods, endoscopes ready for use in patients were found contaminated at high rates (period 1: 49 % of 152 endoscopes; period 2: 39 % of 154 endoscopes). Culture of bacterial fecal flora (E. coli, coliform enterobacteriaceae, enterococci) was interpreted indicating failure of cleaning procedure and disinfection of endoscopes. Detection of Pseudomonas spp. (especially P. aeruginosa) and other non-fermenting rods ± indicating microbially insufficient final rinsing and incomplete drying of the endoscope or a contaminated flushing equipment for the air/waterchannel ± pointed out endoscope recontamination during reprocessing or afterwards. Cause for complaint was found in more than 50 % of endoscopy facilities tested (period 2: 5 in hospitals, 25 practices). Reprocessing endoscopes in fully automatic chemo-thermally decontaminating washer-disinfectors with disinfection of final rinsing water led to much better results than manual or semi-automatic procedures (failure rate of endoscopy facilities in period 2 : 3 of 28 with fully automatic, 8 of 12 with manual, 9 of 15 with semi-automatic reprocessing). The study results give evidence for the following recommendations: 1. Manual brushing of all accessible endoscope channels has to be performed even before further automatic reprocessing; 2. For Interdisziplinäre Arbeitsgruppe ¹Infektionsprävention in der gastrointestinalen Endoskopieª

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Data are presented on caesarean section rates during the first five-year period of the Bavarian Perinatal Study (BPE 1982-1986), comprising 450,000 births. In order to identify long-term trends, statistical studies from the Munich Perinatal Study (MPS) dating back to 1975 were continued in the same Munich hospitals through to 1982-1984. The results may be broken down as follows: 1. The overall rate of caesarean sections has been increasing, steadily, reaching 15% in the 1986 BPE. No clear levelling-off is evident yet. 2. The highest rates of caesarean sections and vaginal operative deliveries were found in university hospitals. Spontaneous deliveries occurred least often in university hospitals (about 70%), and most frequently in the larger country and private hospitals (77-79%). Smaller externally staffed private hospitals had about the same rate of vaginal-operative deliveries as university hospitals. 3. Following caesarean section, postoperative complications prompted a three- to sixfold higher rate of maternal transfer to other hospitals over that following spontaneous delivery. 4. As maternal age increases, so does the rate of caesarean section for primiparae. Nevertheless, recent years have witnessed a levelling-off for women over 34 years of age. No trend toward further increase is evident for this age group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)