An outbreak of sepsis following surgery: Utilizing 16S RNA sequencing in determining the source of infection

An outbreak of postoperative infections following surgery led to ICU admission of patients, immediately after the surgical procedure. Two of the patients had positive blood cultures with Citrobacter Freundii. The only connection between all cases was the anesthesiologist. An epidemiological inquiry could not definitely identify the source of the outbreak. We, therefore, utilized a technique of 16S rRNA sequencing to evaluate the microbiome of the anesthesiologist and compared the results to bacteria cultured from two of the patients bloodstream.