[Skin flora of the hands, elbow-hollow and fore-arm (author's transl)]

During five years, the values of the skin flora of the hands, fore-arm and elbow-hollow were studied on volunteers, especially five of them. Samples were taken according to the washing method. Results show important quantitative variations of the flora between the differents volunteers and even for a same volunteer. In the five long term followed subjects, the differences were: 2.17 log 10 for aerobic flora and 1.97 log 10 for aeroanaerobic flora of the hands, 3.90 log 10 for aerobic flora and 3.88 log 10 for aero-anaerobic flora of the fore-arm, 2.95 log 10 for aerobic flora and 3.35 log 10 for aero-anaerobic flora of the elbow-hollow. These variations remained independent of the season. According to these variations, already notified by others authors it is suggested first to standardize sampling and bacteriological methods, second to develop multicentric programs in view to increase the number of subjects to be included in the study.