Essay On Wound Culture

Introduction The wound culture is primarily used in the identification of bacteria if present. A wound culture is performed when a person shows signs and symptoms of inflammation, swelling, tenderness, redness and pain. Once bacteria have been identified in a wound. A susceptibility test is performed. A susceptibility test is used to determine the likelihood that a particular antibiotic or antifungal drug will be effective in stopping the growth of the bacteria or fungi causing infection (Bacterial Wound Culture n.d.). A culture is collected and placed on a growth medium. The presence of bacteria, the culture will be positive. The culture will test negative without the presence of bacteria.
Body of Paper A wound culture should be performed on people showing signs and symptoms of soft tissue infections with open or draining lesions; or of insect or spider bite with necrotizing center, drainage, and erythema; or an abscess and infected laceration (Skin and soft tissue …show more content…
The bacteria could possibly be present include Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and Clostridium perfringens (Skin and Wound Cultures n.d.). The test results are interpreted as qualitative, semi quantitative, and quantitative (Skin and Wound Cultures: Healthwise Medical Information on eMedicineHealth. n.d.). A qualitative wound culture result is when no signs of bacterial growth are present. A semi quantitative wound culture involves less than 4+ growth. Qualitative wound culture would have less than 100,000 organisms per milliliter (Skin and Wound Cultures: Healthwise Medical Information on eMedicineHealth. n.d.). A culture that does not show any sign of bacterial growth does not prove that the presence of bacteria is not the cause of the infection. The cause of the infection could be the presence of normal flora, which are bacteria already present on the skin (Skin and Wound Cultures