ABSTRACT
A given disease can similarly lower the oxidationreduction potential and thus initiate the anaerobic progression. With the lowering of the oxidation-reduction potential, acidification of the local environment and removal of molecular oxygen, the polymicrobial flora of disease undergoes selective changes. The more aerobic bacteria (which cannot replicate under these progressively adverse conditions) undergo a process of sequential autoelimination. This process is termed the anaerobic progression (Fig. 1). Abscess formation is the ultimate
TABLE 1 Classification of anaerobic bacteria
culmination of the anaerobic progression. From welldeveloped abscess material, usually only a single genus of bacteria is isolated.
