Epidemiological studies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in leg ulcers.

A 6-month prospective study was carried out in an angiology ward on patients with leg ulcers. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated from about half of the samples from the patients. Of the isolates, 85 were serotyped, fingerprinted as to passive pyocin sensitivity and characterized for antibiotic susceptibility pattern. According to all criteria, the isolates belonged to six strains, two of which were clearly epidemic: one infected 11 patients yielding 52 identical isolates, the other infected 4 patients (19 isolates).