Bacteriophage typing was used to subdivide Klebsiella obtained from patients in a surgical intensive care unit during a 2-year period. The 15 phages employed to type the strains were propagated by a soft-agar layer technique. In all, 23 phage types were found among the 120 clinical strains. The phage types of repeat isolates were reproducible. Only 70% of the strains tested were phage typable, but when used in conjunction with capsular serotyping and biotyping, a much greater subdivision of the Klebsiella strains was achieved. The addition of phage typing to serobiotyping for epidemiological analysis suggested that the number of cross-infecting Klebsiella strains in the intensive care unit was few, but that these strains persisted in the unit for long periods of time and could infect different body sites.
Epidemiological Analysis of 135 Cases of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Managed at a Surgical Intensive Care Unit
