Unusual complications of bone wax at the skull base

Objective This study aimed to describe the clinical presentation, microbiological profile and management of complications of bone wax usage for surgical procedures at the skull base. Method The case records of a series of five patients who developed post-operative surgical site complications because of bone wax usage during skull base surgery were reviewed. Results In all five patients, persistent site-specific clinical features were noted along with intra-operative presence of excessive bone wax. Three unique cases of presentation, one with a fungal brain abscess because of Aspergillus flavus infection, another with fungal osteomyelitis because of Trichosporon beigelii infection and a third with intradural migration of bone wax into the cerebellopontine angle cistern are highlighted. Conclusion The presentation of surgical site infection at the skull base because of excessive use of bone wax can be manifold. The need for testing appropriate cultures including fungal culture is highlighted.

Fungal infection risk groups among school children

The aim of the study was to evaluate the relationship between ocurrence of fungi in children and living environment (city - countryside), sex, age, diet, undergone diseases therapy with antibiotics and exposure to hospital environment, and to indicate children potentially vulnerable to fungal infections. The material was consisted of swabs collected from the oral cavily, the throat and the nose of healthy children, aged 6-9 and 10-15, from both urban and rural environmens. <i>Candida albicans</i>, the basic aetiological factor in thc majority of mycoses recorded in humans, unquestionably prevailed in the group of the 13 speciec of yeast-like fungi and yeasts isolated. Records of <i>C. glabrata</i> and <i>C. krusei</i> increasing numbers of whose strains show resistance to basic antimycoties, as well as relatively frequent records of <i>Trichosporon beigelii, Saccharomycopsis capsularis</i> and <i>Saccharomyces</i> sp., fungi whose expansiveness and enzymatic activity have been growing, may be considered disconcerting. Vulnerability to fungal infection increases following anti-bacterial antibiotic therapy in the majority of subjects regardless season or age. This is particularly true primarily of the most stable ontocoenosis of the throat. Younger children, on the other hand, are the most vulnerable foUowing infection of the respiratory system. Fungi are likely to colonise the nose in this case. Children living in the countryside who had been ll immediately prior to the collection of the material constitute the highest risk group of the occurrence of fungi in any of the ontocoenoses studied. A greater number of positive inoculations were recorded in these children in comparison to the children from the city. It may be indicative of a more extensive spectrum of natural reservoirs of fungi and the vectors of their transmission in rural areas than those in the city, lower health hygiene and lower immunity or of a more common carriage of fungi among rural children.

Dynamics of human respiratory system mycoflora

The study aimed at determing the prevalence of individual species of fungi in the respiratory systems of women and men, analysis of the dynamics of the fungi in individual sections of the respiratory system as concerns their quantity and identification of phenology of the isolated fungi coupled with an attempt at identifying their possible preferences for appearing during specific seasons of thc year. During 10 years of studies (1989- 1998). 29 species of fungi belonging: <i>Candida, Geolrichum, Saccharomyces, Saccharomycopsis, Schizosaccharomyces, Torulopsis, Trichosporon</i> and <i>Aspergillus</i> were isolated from the ontocenoses of the respiratory systems of patients at the Independent Public Center for Pulmonology and Oncology in Olsztyn. <i>Candida albicans</i> was a clearly dominating fungus. Individual species appeared individually, in twos or threes in a single patient, they were isolated more frequently in the spring and autumn, less frequently during the winter and summer. The largest number of fungi species were isolated from sputum (29 species), bronchoscopic material (23 species) and pharyngeal swabs (15 species). <i>Sacchoromycopsis capsularis</i> and <i>Trichosporon beigelii</i> should be treated as new for the respiratory system. Biodiversity of fungi, their numbers and continous fluctuations in frequency indicate that the respiratory system ontocenose offers the optimum conditions for growth and development of the majority of the majority of yeasts - like fungi.

Comparison of enzymatic activity of selected yeast-like fungi isolated from lakes and astatic reservoirs

The stains of <i>Candida albicans</i> and <i>Trichosporon beigelii</i> isolated from astatic reservoir show a higher enzymatic activity than the strains isolated from lake. The results obtained confirm earlier suspicions that the morphological differentiation of micro-fungi living in different water reservoirs is generally accompanied by physiological differences, which arc, to the largest extent, reflections of the chemical composition of the environment.

Trichosporon species isolated from human respiratory system

The research included clinical material collected from the patients of the Specialist Medical Unit for Tubereles. Lung Diseases and Oncology in Olsztyn with particular consideration to the respiratory system and to <i>Trichosporon species</i>. In total 3 species were isolated: <i>Trichosporon beigelii</i> Vuillemin, <i>Trichosporon capitatum</i> Diddens et Lodder and <i>Trichosporon pullulans</i> Diddens et Lodder. <i>T. beigelii</i> dominated in the materiał examined.

Differentiation of enzymatic activity of yeasts and yeast-like microorganisms isolated from various environments

The aim of study was to determinate enzymatic activity of yeast-like organisms - <i>Candida lipolytica, Rhodotorula rubra, Trichosporon beigelii, Zygosaccharomyces</i> sp. - isolated from the Szczecin Lagoon and herring salads. We have shown that lipolytic activity was higher than protcolytic for every strain tested. The lowest activity level was found out for amylolytic hydrolases. The results also demonstrated that yeast-like organisms isolated from the Szczecin Lagoon revealed much higher average enzymatic activity compared to tbe same species isolated from herring salads, excepting <i>C. lipolytica</i>.

A taxonomic study of o strain of Trichosporon beigelii (Küch. et Rabenh.) Vuillemin from the soil

The morphology and physiology of a strain of <i>Trichosporon</i> beigelii was studied. Several kinds of spores and conidial stalks were observed. The observations indicate morphological characteristics should be used as positive and negative criteria in Identification of species of <i>Trichosporon</i> and in distinguishing it from related genera.