BACTERIOLOGICAL STUDY OF EAR DISCHARGE IN BIR HOSPITAL

Discharge from the ear is one of the commonest symptoms of infections of the ear. With a view to study the major strains of bacteria encountered in ear discharges, this study was conducted in Microbiology Laboratory, Bir Hospital. The study was conducted for a period of 6 months from January 2000 - July 2000. A total of 224 samples of aural discharges of the outpatients were collected and analysed for bacterial growth. These samples were cultured with the use of standard microbiological techniques and the antibiotic sensitivity pattern of the isolates was also studied in vitro with the use of disc diffusion method. Among 224 patients, 50.9% were male and 49.1% were female and the age of the patients varied from 6 months to 76 years. Majority of the patients with discharging ear belonged to the age group 11-20 years. Bacterial growth was found in 82.6%. The bacterial isolates were of 13 different species. Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequently isolated organism (49.4%) followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa(20.9%). Other organisms isolated were Coagulase negative Staphylococci (CONS), Streptococcus spp., Bacillus sps., Escherichia spp., Proteus spp., Enterobacter spp., Klebsiella spp., Acinetobacter spp., Edwardsiella spp.The prevalence of gram positive bacterial isolates was higher than gram negative bacterial isolates. 58.0% of samples showed positive correlation with direct smear gram stain and culture results. Among the antibiotics used, Ciprofloxacin was found to be the most effective (80.2%) for overall bacterial isolates followed by Gentamicin (68.9%). The result of antibiotic sensitivity was almost similar to gram positive as well as gram negative isolates. Key Words: Aural discharge, Gram stain, culture, sensitivity