Technical Advances in Patient Isolation

Abstract

Extension of gnotobiotic techniques from the animal laboratory to the clinical ward presents a number of problems and challenges. Previous publication by Levenson and Trexler, as well as Haynes and others, have reported some of the uses and advantages of reverse isolation technique with patient isolators both in the operating room and on the surgical ward. The use of these techniques in the clinical management of patients and in the clinical research of infection and immunologic response to infection has also been demonstrated. Much work has been done which indicates that clinical gnotobiotic research and application to patient care will develop rapidly and expand to new areas as the technical problem of patient care in an isolator are minimized.