Endoscopically guided sinus cultures in normal subjects

The study of healthy sinus flora has been pursued with Caldwell-Luc, antral puncture, and anterior rhinoscopy. Increasingly, nasal endoscopy has been used to obtain cultures, yet the significance of findings using thai techni que remains uncertain. Our ability to interpret the growing number of these cultures will be greatly enhanced by determining the results of this techn ique in patients without sinusitis. The goal of this study is to identify t he bacterial flora of the sinuses in 25 heathy volunteers. Gram stain, aerobic, and anaerobic cultures were performed on swabs taken f rom the middle meatus and sphenoethmoid recesses. Eighteen cultures were st erile for aerobic organisms. Of the remaining 32 cultures, 41 isolates were retrieved. Predominant aerobes were S. aureus, Staphylococcus coagulase-ne gative, and diphtheroids; P. acnes was the predominant anaerobe.