Evaluation of a Routine Anaerobic Subculture of Blood Cultures for Detection of Anaerobic Bacteremia

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The value of a routine 48-h anaerobic subculture of blood cultures was assessed over a 4-mo. period. Excluding presumed contaminants, anaerobes represented 51 (6.9%) of the total number of 734 positive cultures. Sixteen isolates (all Bacteroides) from 6 patients were detected by the anaerobic subculture. All but 1 of these were also detected macroscopically. Excluding the 1 isolate, the routine anaerobic subculture hastened the identification of anaerobic organisms by only 1 day in 2 patients. A routine anaerobic subculture is apparently not indicated for the detection of anaerobic bacteremia.