Value of routine stool cultures in hospitalized patients with diarrhea.
In a prospective study conducted over a six-month period, the relative yield of 721 routine cultures of stool from adult inpatients as a function of the time after hospital admission was assessed. Salmonella, Campylobacter, Shigella or Yersinia spp. were recovered from 10.9% (41/377) of patients within three days of hospitalization and from only 1.5% (5/344) after three days. However, a review of these patients' charts did not suggest nosocomial transmission but rather a delay in stool collection or asymptomatic carriage. Clostridium difficile was isolated with a high frequency in patients both within and after three days of hospitalization (10.3% and 10.2%, respectively). Thus, stool specimens from adults hospitalized for more than three days should not be cultured except for Clostridium difficile unless there are plausible clinical or epidemiological reasons to do so.
Barbut
F
F
Laboratoire de Microbiologie, Hôpital Saint-Antoine, Paris, France.
Leluan
P
P
Antoniotti
G
G
Collignon
A
A
Sédallian
A
A
Petit
J C
JC
D000328:Adult; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000382:microbiology*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D011446:Prospective Studies