[Evaluation of the effectiveness of serological typing in subdifferentiation of strains of Klebsiella of extraenteral origin].

The present study reports on the results of capsular serotyping of Klebsiella strains isolated between 1971 and 1972, carried out in view of the subdivision of the genus. Serologic typing was performed with K1--K80 sera on 156 Klebsiella strains, isolated from in-hospital cases of extraenteral klebsiella infections. The 140 (90%) strains typed were listed in 34 capsular serotypes. Another 16 strains (10%) could not be typed because of their insufficient capsular coating. The following 13 serotypes were predominant: K4 (13.57%), K2 (7.85%), K16 (6.42%), K18 (6.42%), K27 (5%), K20 (4.28%), K24 (4.28%), K55 (4.28%), K68 (4.28%), K48 (3.55%), K15 (2.85%), K17 (2.85%), representing 70.71%. In the feces samples from the healthy controls serotypes K7, K14, K30, K1, K2, K24, K27, K47 etc. may be considered omnipresent. It has been demonstrated that in periods of minimal epidemiological survey, these serotypes from healthy carriers may initiate nosocomial infections. The present findings emphasize the accessibility and value of serologic typing of klebsiellas according to clinical and epidemiologic indications. The serologic type is a marker that can be included on the programme of systematic typing of in-hospital strains.