Throat swabs in acute tonsillitis and their response ro commonly used antibiotics

Abstract

A descriptive study is conducted on 100 children with age range between 6 months to 5 years with acute tonsillitis attending Tikrit teaching hospital during the period from of July to the last of December 2007. The cases were collected from the pediatrics and the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) departments. From each patient, throat swab was taken for bacteriological examination by culture and then sensitivity test done on each pathogenic growth detected.
Bacterial pathogens were detected in 54 cases (54%) in surface swab culture. Twenty cases revealed commensal micro-organism (20% ). Staphylococcus aureus was the most commonly grown organism on the surface culture of the tonsil (42 patients out of 54 (77.7%). Group A, beta hemolytic streptococci was isolated from 10 patients (18.5%). Klebsiella pneumoniae was detected in only two cases ( 3.7%). Regarding antibiotic sensitivity, commonly used antibiotics revealed unsatisfactory results for isolated pathogens. In conclusion, the problem of bacterial resistance to the commonly used antibiotics is apparent but further studies on larger scales are needed to determine the magnitude of the problem.