Aerobic bacteriology of chronic suppurative otitis media in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, India

This is an aerobic bacteriological study of chronic suppurative otitis media to identify common pathogens and to evaluate their antibiotic susceptibility pattern. Hundred and fifty patients who had chronic ear discharge and had not received antibiotics recently were selected. Swabs were taken and cultured for bacteria aerobically. Antibiotic testing was done using modified Kirby–Bauer disk diffusion method. In addition to the usual antibiotics, three antibiotics commonly available as topical ear drops were tested. There were 192 bacterial isolates comprising mainly Staphylococcus aureus (36%), Proteus species (32%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (24%), and coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (20%). Among the topical antibiotics, ciprofloxacin had the highest susceptibility rate (89%) for all the isolates tested followed by gentamicin (76.5%) and chloramphenicol (59.3%).