Reevaluation of anaerobic blood cultures in a veteran population

Background. Studies suggest that the selective use of anaerobic blood cultu res may represent a more cost-effective laboratory approach when anaerobic bacterial infection is suspected. Methods. A 5-year retrospective study was done at a Veterans' Affairs hospi tal to determine the utility of routinely including anaerobic blood culture when sampling for bacteremia. Results. A total of 22,075 anaerobic blood cultures were collected from our adult population. Significant anaerobic pathogens were isolated from only 0.14% of these blood cultures. An anaerobic infection could have been suspe cted in 92% of our patients. Conclusions. Significant anaerobic bloodstream infections occurred in only 0.14% of blood cultures. In addition, the majority of the patients identifi ed with anaerobic bacteremia had clinical conditions that would have sugges ted a high likelihood of anaerobic bacteremia. These observations suggest t hat selective rather than routine use of anaerobic blood cultures may be ap propriate in a veteran population.