1310 strains of Enterococcus faecalis have been surveyed from October to December 1990 in 27 general hospitals. No strain was resistant to vancomycin and ampicillin. No production of a beta-lactamase was detected in the highly gentamicin-resistant isolates. The percentage of gentamicin resistant strains was 11, with kanamycin-gentamicin resistance alone in 5 % of the isolates, and resistance to all the aminoglycosides in 6 % of isolates. The geographical distribution varied from 0 to 57 %. The percentage of strains resistant to gentamicin was 16.9 in blood cultures and 14.9 in urines. The strains isolated from the geriatric wards have the highest rate of resistance.