[Bacterial contamination of the anterior chamber and cataract surgery]

The authors report the results of bacteriologic cultures of the anterior chamber aspirate after cataract surgery. The results were positive for 15 cases (24%). Nine cultures were positive for 27 eyes operated by phacoemulsification and 6 cultures were positive for 35 eyes operated by extracapsular cataract extraction. The origin of these organisms is the normal bacterial flora of the conjunctiva and the inoculum size is very small. The most commonly identified organisms are coagulase-negative staphylococcus and propionibacterium acnes.