The effectivity of selected antibiotics on strains of staphylococci isolated from normal lids

Staphylococcal diseases are commonly diagnosed in the optometric office. The normal healthy eye contains approximately two to three strains of various staphylococcal species, and these indigenous staphylococci are thought to be able to infect ocular tissues and cause ocular disease. Many strains of staphylococci are becoming resistant or are resistant to the antibiotics that are used to treat eye diseases. Data which present the variation of antibiotic susceptibility will assist the prescription choice and prognosis the optometrist selects for the infected patient. Forty subjects free of clinical eye disease were selected from students at PUCO. Cultures were taken from their eyelid margins and the bacteria were identified using standard techniques. Fifty-nine isolates were Staphylococcus epidermidis and one isolate was Staphylococcus au reus. Susceptibility to 1 0 antibiotics was determined for all 60 isolates using the disk diffusion test. The number of isolates susceptible to the antibiotics ranged from 98% for cefazolin to 59% for bacitracin