[Quantitative study of the bacterial flora of air in operating theatres (author's transl)]

A comparative study of two air-bacteria counting machines, MK II (Casella, London) and R.B. (Joubert, Lyon) was carried out. Pre-operation air samples from operating rooms were drawn by the two machines working simultaneously. The results from the two machines are similar, however the RB machine is the more sensitive of the two machines. Moreover, an old operating room without filtrated air had a significantly higher air bacteria contamination (m = 199 +/- 173 bacteria/m3) than a new one with filtrated air (m = 40 +/- 36 bacteria/m3). Samples from laminar air flow (m = 1,3 +/- 1,5 bacteria/m3) were examined as test studies. Working methods and results of air bacteria counts are studied.