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J Clin Microbiol. 1978 December; 8(6): 764-766
Copyright © 1978 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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

John W. Paisley, Jon E. Rosenblatt, Marsha Hall and John A. Washington II

¹ Mayo Clinic and Mayo Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota 55901

ABSTRACT

The value of a routine 48-h anaerobic subculture of blood cultures was assessed in our laboratory over a 4-month period. Excluding presumed contaminants, anaerobes represented 51 (6.9%) of the total number of 734 positive cultures. Sixteen isolates (all Bacteroides) from six patients were detected by the anaerobic subculture. All but one of these were also detected macroscopically. Excluding the one isolate, the routine anaerobic subculture hastened the identification of anaerobic organisms by only 1 day in two patients. We conclude that a routine anaerobic subculture is not indicated for the detection of anaerobic bacteremia.

Present address: Department of Pediatrics, Denver General Hospital, Denver, CO 80204.