Specimen Collection
Anaerobic culture will be routinely performed on the following specimens only:
Pus from abscesses
Chest aspirates
Normally sterile body fluid or tissue.
Other specimens will only be processed after consultation.
Whenever possible, pus should be sent in a syringe. All air should be expressed from the syringe and the needle removed and the end securely capped.
See also:
Aspirates
Pus
Tissue for culture
Turnaround Time:
Gram stain: same day, or urgently by request.
Culture: negative reports issued after 7 days. An interim report will be issued on any positive cultures.
Contact Information
For further information, contact the Microbiology Department via Lablink or the Clinical Microbiologist:
Lablink contact details
Dr Sally Roberts
, Microbiologist:
ext 22705
Cellphone
021 674 140
Dr Sharmini Muttaiyah
, Microbiologist:
ext 22700
Cellphone
021 615 892
Dr Mary de Almeida
, Microbiologist:
ext 22700
Cellphone
021 170 9117
Dr Matthew Blakiston
, Microbiologist: contact via Lablink
Result Details
Antimicrobial therapy
Amoxycillin/clavulanate
is active against most anaerobes.
Metronidazole
is active against almost all anaerobes. Important exceptions are non-spore forming gram positive bacilli (
Actinomyces
spp.,
Arachnia
spp. and
Cutibacterium
spp.).
Penicillin G
is active against many anaerobes. Important exceptions are
Bacteroides
spp.
Cefoxitin
shows good activity against most anaerobes except for some
Clostridium
spp. While it is the most active cephalosporin, a reasonable minority of local
Bacteroides
isolates are resistant.
Aminoglycosides
are inactive against anaerobes.
Current antibiotic susceptibilities of local anaerobe isolates can be found in the "Antimicrobial Susceptibility Report" in the Intranet, LabPlus web page, or by telephoning the Microbiology laboratory.