[Nosocomial infection: medical responsibility regarding the law]

The nosocomial infection, infection transmitted to a patient at the time of medical care, constitutes a complex nosological framework. The knowledge of the risk factors is essential to their good management. It underlies all the lawful texts concerning the fight against the nosocomial infections. These texts propose to us definitions established in a context of public hygiene and health. The complexity and the cost of the management of all these risks can only be compared with jurisprudential simplification, which results from this in responsibility matters. In a pro indemnity concern, the position of the "Cour de Cassation" is closely akin to the rigor of the "Conseil d'état", which imposes the uncompromising presumption of fault against supposed guilty, persons or entities. It is necessary to redefine the risks towards praetorian right. It is the role of the legal expert, auxiliary of the judge, to provide in equity an informed opinion on the facts. The factual criteria must allow a modulation of responsibility concerning the fault, the serial risk or the medical risk.