Aspetti clinici e medico-legali del primo caso di legionellosi contratta in uno studio odontoiatrico

In the case report published by the Italian Istituto Superiore di Sanità it was demonstrated, for the first time globally, the fortuitous correlation between the Legionella spp pathology, its consequences and the contamination of dental unit waterlines. The death, caused by Legionnaire's disease, of an elderly patient in the city of Forlì, in Central-Northern Italy, was indisputably related to the very same pathogenic family found inside the dental unit of her dentist. This case, without wanting to raise unnecessary alarmism, underlines how important it is to reduce to the very minimum the exposure risk for patients and dental staff and, at the same time, emphasizes how the professionals involved need to be able to prove the dental staff's ignorance of the event (i.e., an event in no way avoidable). Such requirements have warranted this critical re-examination of the problems and the singling out of specific preventive strategies of guaranteed effectiveness and ones capable of protecting the professional responsible for the dental surgery and practice in the medico-legal domain. The risk of Legionella spp contamination of dental unit waterlines has been demonstrated for some time. However the clinical and practical importance of the Forlì's event is unquestionable, even more so if related to issues of civil and penal responsibility. The professionals in question will be summoned to prove their ignorance regarding the inauspicious event.