[Accidental punctures with used needles: 5 years of observations in a Lombard hospital]

The paper provides a qualitative epidemiological survey of the accidental needles punctures which have occurred in a general hospital over the quinquennium 1984/1988. The registered cases (370) correspond to an incidence of 72.3 for thousand exposures. The phenomenon appears to be stable, despite a series of interventions. It is not excluded that this apparent failure may be in fact the reflection of the increased number of notifications, as a by product of the intensive campaigning, but the Authors underline the intrinsic difficult of assuring efficacy to large-scale preventive interventions.