Surface bioburden expressed as mean cfu per about 25 cm2 of the outer layer of wrapped syringes, steel needles (SN) and plastic needles (PN) in nine hospital pharmacies
| Hospital | Syringes (n=10) | Steel needles (SN) / Plastic needles (PN) (n=10) | |||
| Volume (ml) | Mean cfu | SD | Mean cfu | SD | |
| 1 | 20 | 3.3 | 5.65 | – | |
| 2 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0.9 (SN) | 1,37 |
| 3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | – | |
| 4 | 10 | 0.1 | 0.32 | 0 (SN) | 0 |
| 5 | 5 | 0.4 | 0.52 | – | |
| 6 | 5 | 0.8 | 1.73 | 0 (SN) | 0 |
| 7 | 10 | 0.6 | 1.58 | – | |
| 8 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 (PN) | 0 |
| 9 | 10 | 0.2 | 0.63 | 0 (PN) | 0 |
n = number of samples examined; steel needles: 10 x a set of five needles were tested.