The Problem:

Clinicians frequently receive delayed or inconclusive culture results, forcing them to use antibiotic therapy that is either unnecessarily broad-spectrum or inappropriate.

The Causes:

• 60% - 80% of all infections result from bacteria embedded in slime layers called biofilms.

• Infectious organisms can survive in protective biofilms even when the patient is on antibiotics.

• Current laboratory techniques are designed to culture bacteria in planktonic states only; as a result, bacteria encased in biofilms are often missed.

• These planktonic bacteria are highly susceptible to environmental degradation during transport after the sample is obtained.

• Centralization of laboratories requires specimens to travel long distances, thereby imperiling the survivability of collected pathogens.

• Viscous samples have a nonrandom distribution of pathogens. If the collected specimen is not homogenized, it is impossible to obtain a representative culture of all pathogens present.

• Modern sepsis protocols require aggressive and early antibiotic use, often eliminating the most fastidious disease-causing pathogens before the sample can be collected.