Wound Culture

Wound Culture

Wound swab

Aerobic culture

Anaerobic culture

Yeast culture

Microbiology

WOUND

• A swab of the area that is of concern to the health care physician. Samples can be from wound,  abscess, burns, cellulitis, drainage, incisions, lesions or ulcers.
• Superficial wound: Superficial wound affects only the outermost layer of the skin - epidermis.
• Deep wound: Deep wound extends beyond the epidermis  and dermis into underlying layers. 

Amies Transport Media

Amies Transport media swab

• For open wounds debride, if appropriate and thoroughly rinse with 0.9% sterile saline solution prior to collection. 
• Sample viable infected tissue, rather than superficial debris. Avoid swabbing slough or necrotic tissue.
• The nurse or physician will take a swab of the area in question.
• Rotate the tip of the swab over the identified 1 cm² are of the wound for 5 seconds, applying sufficient pressure to express fluid from the wound. 
• Immediately insert the swab into appropriate transport system following the manufacturer's instructions for use. 
  Use caution to avoid contaminating the swab when placing it into the transport system.
• The swab should be labelled appropriately and then sent to the laboratory.

Daily

As growth is detected and identified the information is made available to the health care provider.

Superficial wound swabs required to process for Aerobic culture.

Deep wound swabs required to process for Aerobic and Anaerobic culture.

Specimen should be transported to the laboratory ASAP in biohazard bag to the laboratory after collection.

Specimen should be stored at room temperature after receipt in the laboratory ( in Microbiology rack).

On site, BGH laboratory