Best Practices for the Pre-Analytic Phase of Anaerobic Bacteriology

Anaerobic bacteria that cause infections contribute to patient morbidity and mortality, especially among patients with underlying conditions or who are immunocompromised. While once largely grouped together without specific differentiation, anaerobic bacteria, defined as organisms that utilize terminal electron acceptors other than oxygen, are of increasing importance in clinical microbiology. In this review, we discuss pre-analytical-phase best practices for anaerobic recovery in the clinical microbiology laboratory. The suspected infection, and in turn the type of specimen to be cultured, helps determine which sample container, specimen collection method, transport conditions, and culture media are needed for optimal recovery of anaerobic bacteria.