RECENTLY DESCRIBED CLINICALLY IMPORTANT ANAEROBIC-BACTERIA - MEDICAL ASPECTS

There is still inadequate information on the role of certain newly des cribed or reclassified anaerobes in disease processes, on their normal sites of carriage, and on their antimicrobial susceptibilities. Herei n, we summarize this information (most of the literature reviewed is f rom the past 5 years, but a few of the articles are similar to 10 year s old). Porphyromonas species had seemed to be relatively nonpathogeni c, but recent work indicates that this belief is incorrect. P. gingiva lis, P. levii-like organisms, and P. endodontalis-like organisms have been recovered from a variety of oral and extraoral infections. P. mac acae has been recovered from infected cat bite wounds. Sutterella wads worthensis, recently differentiated from Campylobacter gracilis, has b een found in a variety of infections. Bilophila wadsworthia has also b een recovered from a wide variety of infections. Newly described anaer obic cocci, gram-positive nonsporeforming rods, and clostridia have al so been isolated from various infections.