In the 1996/97 period, 1 413 Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) strains were isolated from 843 patients of the Brno teaching hospitals of St. Anne and Bohunice together with small groups from other hospitals. In the same period, 203 PA strains, used as controls, were isolated from 187 patients treated outside hospitals. Statistical evaluation was based on 1 023 hospital isolates and 189 control strains. A total of 16 isolates were recovered from the hospital environments and two from therapeutic swimming pools. The epidemiological analysis of these PA strains was based on pyocin typing, serological typing and phage typing. The most frequently occurring pyocin types amongst our strains fell into 8 pyocin-type groups. The prevailing groups differed significantly between the hospital patient and control groups. Similarly, serological typing identified differences in the predominant serotypes between hospital and control patients. The phage typing method revealed that the control PA strains were significantly more sensitive to 21 polyvalent bacteriophages used than the hospital isolates. In relation to pyocin and serological typing, strains isolated from the hospital environment showed characteristics similar to those of the PA strains isolated from hospital patients. Our results indicate that the majority of strain isolated from hospitalised patients had their origin from human or inanimate contacts in the hospitals.

        Key words: hospital-acquired infection, Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), pyocin typing, serological typing, phage typing