NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Surgical wound infections with a previously unidentified type of bacterium, which developed in women who underwent breast augmentation at a single medical facility, were traced to a particular surgeon and to his outdoor whirlpool bath, Israeli researchers report.

Dr. Galia Rahav of Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, and colleagues studied 15 patients who developed these infections and compared them to similar patients without infections. The team also conducted an extensive investigation of the surrounding environment.

As reported in the current issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the researchers found that one surgeon performed 13 of these operations. When swab samples were obtained from the surgeon, strains of a previous unknown species of mycobacterium identical to those from the wounds were taken from his eyebrows, hair, face, nose, ears and groin.

The same bacterium was also isolated from the surgeon's bed linen, pillows, towels, bath robe, car air-conditioning and the water from a family outdoor whirlpool bath.

The outbreak ended when he began cleaning the hairy areas of his body with a triclosan shampoo and stopped using his whirlpool bath.

The investigators, who propose the name Mycobacterium jacuzzii for the particular pathogen involved in this outbreak, suggest that guidelines are needed for appropriate cleaning and disinfection of hot tubs, "specifically those owned by surgical personnel or by patients planning to undergo surgery."

SOURCE: Clinical Infectious Diseases, October 1, 2006.