Spectrum of anaerobes encountered in surgical infections in a tertiary care hospital in Mangalore, coastal Karnataka: A prospective study

Context: Anaerobes are significant pathogens as well as normal flora in a variety of body sites. As the conventional anaerobic culture techniques are laborious, time-consuming and relatively expensive, the interest in anaerobes started narrowing down in the recent past. Objective: This study is aimed at the isolation of bacteria encountered in the surgical infections with an emphasis on anaerobes and to create an awareness among the clinicians regarding the potential role of these silent pathogens Materials and Methods: The present prospective study that was conducted for a period of 1 year, employed 393 specimens collected from various surgical infections. All the samples were subjected for the isolation of both aerobes and anaerobes. Results: Out of 393 specimens, 193 anaerobes and 311 aerobes were obtained. Majority of the cases (226) exhibited polymicrobial etiology. Among the anaerobes, more frequently isolated organisms were nonsporing gram-negative bacilli, such as Bacteroides fragilis group, Prevotella-Porphyromonas group and Fusobacterium, which constitute 68.91% of the cases. Conclusions: This study emphasizes the need to employ anaerobic culture techniques routinely in microbiology laboratories and to create an awareness among the clinicians regarding the potential role of anaerobes