BACTERIOLOGICAL STUDY OF EAR DISCHARGE IN BIR HOSPITAL

Abstract

Discharge from the ear is one of the commonest symptoms of infections of the ear.
With a view to study the major strains of bacteria encountered in ear discharges, this
study was conducted in Microbiology Laboratory, Bir Hospital. The study was
conducted for a period of 6 months from January 2000 - July 2000. A total of 224
samples of aural discharges of the outpatients were collected and analysed for bacterial
growth. These samples were cultured with the use of standard microbiological
techniques and the antibiotic sensitivity pattern of the isolates was also studied in
vitro with the use of disc diffusion method. Among 224 patients, 50.9% were male and
49.1% were female and the age of the patients varied from 6 months to 76 years.
Majority of the patients with discharging ear belonged to the age group 11-20 years.
Bacterial growth was found in 82.6%. The bacterial isolates were of 13 different
species. Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequently isolated organism (49.4%)
followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa(20.9%). Other organisms isolated were
Coagulase negative Staphylococci (CONS), Streptococcus spp., Bacillus sps., Escherichia
spp., Proteus spp., Enterobacter spp., Klebsiella spp., Acinetobacter spp., Edwardsiella
spp.The prevalence of gram positive bacterial isolates was higher than gram negative
bacterial isolates. 58.0% of samples showed positive correlation with direct smear
gram stain and culture results. Among the antibiotics used, Ciprofloxacin was found
to be the most effective (80.2%) for overall bacterial isolates followed by Gentamicin
(68.9%). The result of antibiotic sensitivity was almost similar to gram positive as
well as gram negative isolates.
Key Words: Aural discharge, Gram stain, culture, sensitivity.