Bacteriology of ophthalmic infections with special reference to anaerobes

A total of 138 eye specimens were processed for aerobic and anaerobic cultures. Clinical data were obtained from 50 patients with unilateral ophthalmic infection. Cultures from the uninfected eye of 38 of these 50 patients were also processed for comparison. In addition, 50 cultures were obtained from one or both eyes of 30 healthy controls who had no eye infection. Anaerobes and aerobes were isolated from infected eyes of 6 (12%) and 37 (74%) patients respectively. No growth was observed in infected eye of 8 (16%) patients. A mixture of aerobes and anaerobes were recovered only in 2 cases. Of the total 47 aerobic isolates from infected eye specimens, Staphylococcus aureus (11), coagulase negative staphylococci (12) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (9) were predominant isolates. Six anaerobes isolates included Gram positive nonsporing anaerobic bacilli (4 including Propionibacterium acne) as predominant isolates. Clostridium perfringens was isolated from a case of post operative endoophthalmitis. From the uninfected eye of same patients though the number and types of aerobic bacteria were similar, none grew any anaerobes. Aerobic and anaerobic bacteria were isolated in 70 and 6 per cent of eye swabs respectively from the healthy controls.