[Frequency of colonization of beta-hemolytic group B streptococci in a sample of 939 pregnant women. Epidemiologic and clinical study]

A prospective study of group B Streptococcus colonization in 939 pregnant women from Vicenza and its region, disclosed an overall rate of 9.58% of genital colonization. Only two cases of group B streptococcal infant disease occurred in the study period (0.21%). No statistically significant difference between culture-positive and culture-negative pregnant women was found in mean age, parity, place of residence, blood group, presence of clinical disease during pregnancy, type of delivery and gestational age, birth weight and presence of any clinical disease over five days from birth of the newborn infants. The Authors make some recommendations based upon the best understanding of the epidemiology of group B streptococci available at this time.

[Facial paralysis and tuberculous otitis. Significance of early neural decompression]

Facial paralyses associated with tuberculous otitis have consistently had a bad prognosis. This is bound up with delay in diagnosing the tuberculous nature of the lesions and with slow-acting medical treatment. The facial nerve must be decompressed immediately and not delayed until medical treatment has failed. This attitude is particularly necessary in two types of circumstances in which the tuberculous origin should be under suspicion as a matter of routine / firstly when facial paralysis appears in the secondary sequelae of ear surgery and, secondly, when facial paralysis is a complication in chronic otitis without cholesteatoma.