Bacteriologic features and antimicrobial resistance of organisms associated with extracted teeth: findings from a Nigerian university teaching hospital.
BACKGROUND
Empirically prescribed antibiotics are widely employed in the management of odontogenic infections.


OBJECTIVE
To characterise the infections associated with extracted teeth and assess effectiveness of the antibiotics prescribed empirically following tooth extraction.


METHODS
The study was cross-sectional and consisted of 41 consecutively recruited subjects who required extraction for infections associated with the tooth.  Appropriate clinical specimens were collected aseptically from each patient and transported in Stuart's transport medium for processing in the laboratory. Isolation, identification, and susceptibility pattern of anaerobic and facultative organisms were done employing standard bacteriologic techniques. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by the disc diffusion technique.


RESULTS
There were positive cultures for 37 patients. Twenty-eight aerobic (45.9%) bacteria and 32 anaerobic (54.1%) bacteria were isolated, an approximation of two microorganisms per patient. Staphylococcus was the most predominant aerobe (25.0%) whereas Bacteroides fragilis was the most predominant anaerobe (34.2%). All the bacteria isolated showed in vitro resistance to cephalexin, cloxacillin and metronidazole. Eighteen (64.3%) different aerobic bacteria and 13 (40.6%) different anaerobic bacteria were sensitive to ciprofloxacillin and these included staphylococcus and Bacteroides fragilis. Sensitivity pattern for amoxycillin was very poor with 3.6% and 6.3% for aerobes and anaerobes respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Odontogenic infections from our centre are polymicrobial in nature with anaerobes predominating. High resistance to most of the antibiotics routinely prescribed in our centre is common. Ciprofloxacillin demonstrated the highest sensitivity pattern.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry,College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.email gbolahanlere@yahoo.com.
O O
OO
Gbolahan
F J
FJ
Owotade
O A
OA
Fatusi
A O
AO
Aboderin
J A
JA
Akinwande
A R
AR
Abdulrasheed
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014070:Tooth / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000601:surgery; D014081:Tooth Extraction; D055815:Young Adult
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents