1018 ANAEROBIC BLOOD CULTURE SURVEY IN TWO NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNITS (NICU)

Abstract

Only 8-15% of blood cultures (BC) from NICU patients suspected of sepsis yield pathogenic bacteria. Previous studies have suggested that anaerobic bacteria may cause BC negative neonatal sepsis. In this study 455 BC were drawn and processed anaerobically from patients in 2 NICUs with signs of sepsis. Five of the cultures were umbilical in origin. The rest were obtained from peripheral veins. Over a 3-month period all BC in one of the hospitals were processed in the same way to provide a comparison group. Any air was expressed prior to inocculating the blood into bottles with 50 cc pre-reduced anaerobically sterilized trypticase soy broth with sucrose and .025-.05% SPS with 10% CO₂ atmosphere. All subcultures were performed under a continuous flow of CO₂ onto pre-reduced media and incubated in Gaspak^R jars. This technique should recover all but very fastidious anaerobes. Aerobic pathogens were recovered from 37 (8.1%) of cultures. An additional 3.5% yielded aerobic contaminants. Anaerobes were recovered from only 3 (0.7%) cultures (1.C. perfringens, 1 Veillonella sp. 1 Bacteroides sp.). Similar results were obtained with 1714 adult BC (199 aerobic, 16 anaerobic recoveries). In this study the incidence of anaerobic bacteremia was no greater in NICU than adult patients. The techniques employed may miss very fastidious organisms, however, we are unable to confirm a significant role for anaerobic bacteria in the neonatal sepsis syndrome.

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