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On Dec. 13, Froedtert Hospital closed all operating rooms and canceled all procedures except for emergent and trauma cases as a precautionary measure. The operating rooms were reopened and surgeries resumed by 6:00 pm that day.
The precautions were made because a patient who was operated on Dec. 10 had a pathology report stating that there is a very small potential that this patient has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). CJD was not suspected when the patient had surgery, and the brain biopsy after the surgery was more consistent with bacterial infection and did not have any of the classic pathologic findings consistent with CJD. On Dec. 13, the results of a spinal fluid analysis sent from a prior facility became available. That test can be a marker for CJD. The result was ambiguous — meaning that it was NOT POSITIVE nor was it negative.
As a result, immediate precautionary steps were taken, including the closing of the operating rooms, sterilization of equipment and the notification of patients who had surgery in the interim. Further testing was also ordered. Those results are expected by mid-week.
Learn more about CJD, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site.
Read a complete transcript of the media conference held Dec. 13 with Richard Olds, MD, Chairman and Professor of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin.
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