ANAEROBIC FLORA OF THE CONJUNCTIVAL SAC IN PATIENTS WITH AIDS AND WITH ANOPHTHALMIA COMPARED WITH NORMAL EYES

Relatively few investigations of anaerobic bacteria as ocular flora ha ve been conducted, and their results have been contradictory. The conj unctival sacs of 22 normal subjects and of 14 patients with acquired i mmunodeficiency syndrome, and 22 anophthalmic sockets were cultured fo r anaerobic bacteria Thirty-four (77.3%) of the 44 eyes of normal subj ects harbored anaerobic bacteria; Propionibacterium acnes was present in 28 eyes (63.6%), Lactobacillus species in 6 eyes (13.6%), and Veill onella species in 7 eyes (15.9%). The finding were very similar for an ophthalmic sockets (p=0.01), with 17 (77.3%) of the 22 sockets harbori ng anaerobes; Propionibacterium acnes was the organism identified in 1 6 (72.7%) of these sockets; Veillonella was identified in 4 (18.1%), P eptococcus niger in 3 (13.6%) and P. granulosum in 2 (9.0%) of these s ockets. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients had the highest in cidence of anaerobic organisms, with positive cultures obtained from 2 4 (85.7%) of the 28 eyes. Propionibacterium species were isolated from 16 (57.1%) of these eyes, Clostridium species from 10 (35.7%) eyes an d Actinomyces species from 8 (28.6%) eyes. It thus appears that anaero bic organisms are common flora in normal conjunctival sacs and in anop hthalmic sockets, as well as in the sacs of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients, but the latter group had a higher incidence (x2 = 0 .87) and a spectrum of organisms that was different from that of the o ther two groups.