Bacteriological study of bronchoalveolar lavage in immunocompromised hosts

Sixty bronchoalveolar lavage samples collected from lung cancer patients attending the Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases Unit of the Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Manipal; were cultured for both the aerobic and anaerobic organisms. Fifty nine samples yielded bacteria in pure culture. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (34.8%) was the commonest aerobe, Peptostreptococcus was the commonest anaerobe (45.2%) isolated. Bacteroides fragilis was isolated in (23.8%) of cases. Gentamycin was found to be effective against aerobes, Metronidazole and Rifampicin against anaerobes.