Sampling practices determine the accuracy of blood culture in diagnosing bloodstream infection. Our main acute hospital introduced aerobic-only routine blood cultures aiming to increase the volume and number of aerobic samples” Stoneham et al (2019).
Summary:
Sampling practices determine the accuracy of blood culture in diagnosing bloodstream infection. Our main acute hospital introduced aerobic-only routine blood cultures aiming to increase the volume and number of aerobic samples. At a smaller acute site aerobic-anaerobic pairs were sent routinely. We compared culture yield and sampling practices at these two sites and found anaerobic cultures increased the yield of pathogens including facultative anaerobes. Volume cultured and number of samples sent fell short of national recommendations. The aerobic-only policy did not result in more blood being cultured. Based on these findings we are reintroducing aerobic-anaerobic pairs for routine culture.
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Reference:
Stoneham, S., Schilling, W., San Francisco, A. and Llewelyn, M. (2019) Twelve Year Analysis of Aerobic-Only Blood Cultures for Routine Detection of Bacteraemia. The Journal of Hospital Infection. December 3rd. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2019.11.025.