In vitro susceptibility testing of anaerobic bacteria

In vitro susceptibility testing of anaerobic bacteria should be limited to isolates from persistent or recurrent infections that have been treated adequately and appropriately with antimicrobial agents and, in reference centers, to collections of isolates in order to monitor alterations in susceptibility of species to various antimicrobial agents. An agar dilution reference method is being evaluated currently; however, practicality limits sporadic testing of single isolates to disk elution or broth dilution techniques. No single disk diffusion method has yet been found to be acceptable for testing anaerobic bacteria, and the results obtained with standardized procedures for aerobic and facultatively anaerobic bacteria are not applicable to anaerobic bacteria.