The Non-Aerobes of Post-Extraction Bacteremia

¹ Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

Pre-extraction and post-extraction blood cultures were carried out on 100 patients. All the pre-extraction cultures proved sterile, while post-extraction blood cultures were positive in 64 patients. From these 64 positive cultures, 67 aerobes and 88 non-aerobes were isolated. These represent a far greater recovery of non-aerobes than previously reported by other workers and included 5 strictly CO₂-dependent organisms, 46 obligate anaerobes, and 37 which grew both anaerobically and in air containing 5 per cent CO₂.

As many as seven different organisms (aerobes and non-aerobes) were isolated from a single blood culture, and 68 per cent of the cultures yielded multiple organisms. Among the anaerobes isolated from the circulating blood was a new species of Fusiformis and anaerobic streptococci which grew as black colonies. Rocking of the teeth during extraction was unrelated to the occurrence of positive blood cultures.

The efficiency of these studies is attributed to the use of three separate culture samples for each specimen, each incubated in one of three gaseous atmospheres, to the careful use of anaerobic jars, and to the inclusion of sodium polyanetholesulfonate in the broth.