[A micromethod for studying the sensitivity of anaerobic bacteria to antibiotics]

The method described here allows to classify anaerobic bacteria isolated from clinical specimens in four categories of sensitivity or resistance to 8 antibiotics. Previous experiments using eight reference strains led to choose the pre-reduced Schaedler broth supplemented with hemin, vitamin K1, and 0.07 p. cent agar. For each group of three concentrations of antibiotics, a check sample could confirm the growth of the bacteria without antibiotic. Very few minor discrepancies were observed when the results of the classification in categories were compared to the MIC in Wilkins-Chalgren solid medium as reference method. These discrepancies were related to the inoculum and specially for fast-growing species as Bacteroides fragilis or Clostridium. The use of an inoculum standardized to 0.5 MF for slow-growing species and 0.5 MF diluted hundred fold for fast-growing one confirmed the good correlation between the two methods in a short delay.