General Principles
The following general principles should be followed while collecting the specimen:
- Specimen collection depends upon the type of underlying Infection.
- The proper collection of specimens is of paramount importance for the isolation of the bacteria in culture.
- Standard precautions should be followed for collecting and handling all specimens
- Before antibiotics start: Whenever possible, culture specimens should be collected prior to administration of any antimicrobial agents
- Contamination with indigenous flora should be avoided, especially when collecting urine and blood culture specimens
- Swabs are though convenient but considered inferior to tissue, aspirate and body fluids
- Container: Specimens should be collected in sterile, tightly sealed, leak proof, wide-mouth, screw-capped containers
- Labeling: All specimens must be appropriately labelled with name, age, gender, treating physician, diagnosis’ antibiotic history, type of specimen, and desired investigation name
- Rejection: Specimens grossly contaminated or compromised improperly labelled may be rejected
- Specimen should not be sent in container containing formalin for microbiological analysis.
- If anaerobic culture is requested, proper anaerobic collection containers with media should be used. Specimens should be put into Robertson’s cooked meat broth or any specialized anaerobic transport system and transported immediately to the laboratory.
- Robertson’s cooked meat (RCM) broth contains chopped meat particles (beef heart), which provide glutathione (a sulfhydryl group containing reducing substance) and unsaturated fatty acids.