Anaerobe
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General Information
- Strict anareobes are poisoned by any amount of oxygen
- If it is aerobic and sporulating, it is a bacteria
- If it is anaerobic and sporulating - it is a clostridia
- Nothing else in the bacterial world forms spores
- Clue to anaerobic infections: foul smelling discharges and free gas in tissues
- Anaerobic bacteria rarely appear in isolation
- Originally the world was anaerobic
- Anaerobes are difficult to identify in the laboratory since they are usually found in abscesses, etc
- Culturing anaerobes is pointless because they are always present
- It would take a large laboratory nearly 1.5 years to identify all the anaerobes from a mucosal swab taken from the mouth
Common Anaerobes
Bacteroides
- produces β-lactimase enzyme which confers resistance against penicillin
- commonly found in the gastrointestinal tract
Propionibacterium
- trivial and unimportant organism
- Common contaminant in blood cultures post 4-5 days
- Often found on skin
Actinomyces
- Covered elsewhere
Clostridia
- important
- nasty, highly important spore-forming human pathogen
Diseases
Fournier's Gangrene
- Caused by Bacteroides fragilis
- a terrible disease
- need to do a broad excision mid-thigh to umbilicus
- More info: Harrison's Online
Tetanus
- Affects all muscles spastically (spastic paralysis)
- Called lockjaw because cranial nerves are the shortest nerves in the body, so they are affected first
- First sign of tetanus is Risus sardonicus (sardonic smile)
- Often, farmers present with no tetanus shot; they've stuck a nail in their foot, contaminated with soil
- This usually accounts for a few cases a year
- More info: Harrison's Online: Tetanus
