Evaluation of the Vaginal Tampon as a Means of Obtaining Cultures for Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Cultures of self-inserted vaginal tampons were compared with endocervical cultures from 100 women suspected of having gonorrhea, 55 of whom were found to be infected. Cultures of the tampons were equivalent to endocervical cultures for detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae when properly inserted tampons were cultured as soon as they had been removed from the vagina. If the tampons were placed in plastic containers and allowed to stand at room temperature before they were cultured, there was a progressive decrease with time in the number of gonococcal isolations. After 2 hr, gonococci could be recovered from 79.4% of the tampons that originally contained these organisms. If these tampons were allowed to remain at room temperature overnight, less than one third of them contained gonococci. Self-obtained cultures for gonococci using vaginal tampons may be a useful, inexpensive, and acceptable means of screening women for asymptomatic gonorrhea.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: