A Practical and Efficacious Method for Obtaining Significant Postmortem Blood Cultures

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Four methods of obtaining cardiac blood for postmortem culture were evaluated. Cultures (aerobic and anaerobic) from 325 autopsies were studied. Findings indicate that postmortem blood cultures give highly significant information if the blood is obtained from the heart through a closed chest. The results using this technic were compared with those obtained when blood for culture was taken directly from the heart through a seared right atrium. It was found that 63% of the cultures were sterile when the blood was withdrawn through a closed chest. Of the positive cultures, 40% were considered clinically significant. In comparison, with the more commonly used open chest method, only 31.5% of cultures were sterile, with only 18% of the positive cultures being clinically significant. The number of sterile cultures decreases when bowel manipulation occurs before the specimen is procured, regardless of the method used. The interval between death and the time that the culture was taken had little, if any, effect on the results. Some cultures were sterile even though as many as 50½ hr. had elapsed after death.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: