[An evaluation of antimicrobial removal device to isolate bacteria from bacteremic patients with hematological...

Antibiotics contained in blood specimens often inhibit bacterial growth in culture media. Recently, the antimicrobial removal device (ARD) containing resins to absorb antibiotics has been made available. To evaluate the effectiveness of the ARD, we investigated how much the antibiotics were removed by the ARD. The ARD method was compared to the conventional culturing method in isolating organisms from blood specimens of patients with hematological disorders receiving antimicrobial agents. The antibiotics, including cefotiam, cefsulodin, cefmenoxime, cefazolin and sulbenicillin, were proved to be almost completely removed by the ARD. Bacteria were detected only by use of the ARD in the blood cultures from 2 of 21 blood specimens (11 patients) entered in the study, while all of the blood cultures were negative by the conventional method. These isolated bacteria were S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, of which septicemias were cured by intensive antibiotic therapy for these bacteria. It is suggested that pretreatment with the ARD makes detection of bacteria easier in blood from the patients receiving antibiotics. Literatures were reviewed concerning improvement and shortened time for isolation of organisms by using the ARD.