ABSTRACT
Infections caused by anaerobic bacteria are common and may be serious and life-threatening.
Anaerobes as the predominant components of the bacterial flora of normal human skin and
mucous membranes (1) are a common cause of bacterial infections of endogenous origin.
Because of their fastidious nature, they are difficult to isolate from infectious sites and are often
overlooked. Failure to direct therapy against these organisms often leads to clinical failures.
Their isolation requires appropriate methods of collection, transportation, and cultivation of
specimens (2-4). Treatment of anaerobic bacterial infection is complicated by the slow growth
of these organisms, whichmakes diagnosis in the laboratory only possible after several days, by
the often polymicrobial nature of the infection and by the growing resistance of anaerobic
bacteria to antimicrobial agents.
