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Updated: Jul 10, 2026
Conjunctival Commensal Isolation and Identification in Mice
Published on: May 1, 2021
A prospective randomized study to determine the efficacy of preoperative topical levofloxacin in reducing
Herminia Miño de Kaspar1, Thomas C Kreutzer, Israel Aguirre-Romo
1Department of Ophthalmology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Purpose:
To compare the efficacy of topical levofloxacin in combination with povidone-iodine irrigation vs povidone-iodine (PVI) alone in reducing conjunctival bacteria.
Design:
Prospective, randomized, controlled trial.
Methods:
One hundred and forty eyes of 140 patients scheduled to undergo intraocular surgery eyes were randomized to either group 1 or 2 (70 each). Whereas group 1 eyes had no prophylactic antibiotic, eyes in group 2 received topical treatment with one drop of 0.5% levofloxacin four times on the day before surgery. Both groups underwent irrigation of the fornices with 1% PVI. Conjunctival swabs were inoculated on solid and broth culture media to determine bacterial growth.
Results:
Of 132 eyes evaluated, baseline culture analysis in thioglycolate demonstrated positive culture results in 55 (84.6%) of 65 eyes from group 1, similar to 55 (82.1%) of 67 eyes in group 2 (P = .697). Before surgery, 57 (87.7%) of 65 eyes in group 1 had positive culture results, compared with 50 (74.6%) of 67 eyes in group 2 (P = .055). After irrigation with PVI, 20 (30.8 %) of 65 eyes in group 1 had positive culture results, compared with only eight (11.9%) of 67 eyes in group 2 (P = .008). After surgery, 15 (23.1%) of 65 eyes in group 1 and six (9.0%) of 67 eyes in group 2 had positive culture results (P = .027).
Conclusions:
Our study shows an enhanced effect of using topical levofloxacin in combination with PVI irrigation to reduce conjunctival bacteria in patients undergoing intraocular surgery.
