The Invitro Sensitivity of Bacterial Conjunctivitis Agents to Routinely Used Antibiotics

Objective: The most commonly seen ocular infection worldwide is bacterial conjunctivitis. It is widespread practice to use broad spectrum empirical treatment for bacterial conjunctivitis without production of the agent micro-organism or performing antibiotic sensitivity tests. In the current study, it was aimed to find an effective empirical treatment by isolating bacterial conjunctivitis agents and determining the antibiotic sensitivity percentages in invitro conditions. Methods: Culture samples were taken from the mucopurulent discharge of 65 patients diagnosed with bacterial conjunctivitis. The samples were taken with a swab stick into transport medium, then seeded and the bacteria colonies produced were identified using a fully automated BD Phoenix system (Becton Dickinson , USA). Each of the produced bacteria were evaluated using netilmicin, tobramycin, ofloxacin, tetracycline, chloramfenicol, gentamicin, lomefloxacin, moxifloxacin, and ciprofloxacin discs with the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Results: The 65 patients with bacterial conjuntivitis comprised 30 females and 35 males, age between 21 and 86 (average: 48.23 +/- 10.47). The agent bacteria was isolated in 46 (70.7%) cases. Of the produced bacteria, 86.9% were gram positive cocci, and of these, coagulase negative staphylococci was the most frequently isolated. The sensitivity percentages of the examined antibiotics were found to be netilmicin 93.3%, chloramphenicol 92.5%, tobramycin 90.0%, gentamicin 88.2%, moxifloxacin 84.3%, ofloxacin 80.9%, tetracycline 75.0%, ciprofloxacin 70.5% and lomefloxacin 63.3%. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that rather than using broad spectrum fluoroquinolones in empirical treatment of patients with bacterial conjuctivitis, the firstline use of aminoglycoside-derived antibiotics would have a positive effect on the treatment process.