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Isolation and identification of anaerobic bacteria from blood cultures are still technically demanding procedures. Recently, with the use of gas liquid chromatography, the accuracy of identification is much improved. However, there has never been a satisfactory data analysis on anaerobic bacteremia in Korea. The authors evaluated both the clinical and the bacteriological data of 129 anaerobic bacteremias found at the Yonsei Medical Center during the period of 1973 to 1984. The most frequently isolated anaerobic bacteria were Bacteroides .(52.7%), among which the major species was B. fragilis (38.7%). Incidence of anaerobic bacteremia by sex was 57% in male and 43% in female. Mortality was high` in groups below 1-year old and above 50-year old. The cause of death seemed closely correlated with the patient´s age, general condition and the severity of the underlying disease. Various neoplasms were the most common (20%) underlying diseases predisposing the anaerobic bacteremia. Biliary tract was considered the most frequent route of infection in anaerobic bacteremia. The frequent clinical signs in anaerobic bacteremia were fever (65%), followed by liver function abnormality (29%), jaundice (20%) and hypotention (18%). When analysis of positive rate of blood culture was made on the patients from whom 4 cultures were done within 24 hours. it was found that 33% of the samples were positive. Isolation rate of anaerobic bacteria in thioglycollate medium was 83.8%, while it was 44% in Tryptic soy broth. Among the anaerobic bacteremia, 25.4% were polymicrobial infections with aerobic bacteria (92.5%) , such as E. coli(33.3%). From these studies, it is concluded that B. fragilis is the most important causative organism in anaerobic bacteremia, with high fatality, particularly in those who have underlying diseases. The ports of entry are mainly biliary, gastrointestinal and female genital tract. Fever is the most frequent clinical sign. Single blood culture is not sufficient to detect all anaerobic bacteremia, therefore more cultures with optimal time interval are needed. The incidence of polymicrobial infection in anaerobic bacteremia is higher than that in overall bacteremia.
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