Journal List > J Korean Ophthalmol Soc > v.52(8) > 1009094

Jung, Cho, Paik, and Yang: The Correlation between Organisms Cultured from the Lacrimal Sac and Lacrimal Punctum in Dacryocystitis

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the correlation between organisms cultured from the lacrimal punctum and lacrimal sac in acute and chronic dacryocystitis during endonasal or external dacryocystorhinostomy.

Methods

Clinical and microbiological records of patients who received endonasal or external dacryocystorhinostomy diagnosed with chronic or acute dacryocystitis between January 2006 and July 2010 were reviewed for age, gender, and culture results from samples of the lacrimal punctum and the lacrimal sac.

Results

A total of 107 (93%) patients were positive for bacterial cultures from the lacrimal punctum or sac. The majority of microorganisms from the lacrimal punctum were Staphylococcus epidermidis (24%), and the majority of microorganisms from the lacrimal sac were Staphylococcus aureus (25%). When simultaneous positive culture results from the lacrimal punctum and lacrimal sac were observed, the microorganisms from the 2 areas were identical in 62% of the samples. Additionally, the majority of these organisms were S. aureus.

Conclusions

A high rate of microorganism-positive cultures from the lacrimal sac or lacrimal punctum with a diagnosis of chronic or acute dacryocystitis was found. In addition, the culture results demonstrated that the cause of dacryocystitis was mostly conjunctival normal flora, with a high degree of similarity in organisms between the lacrimal sac and lacrimal punctum (61.7%).

References

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Table 1.
Demographics of patients
Characters
Age (mean ± SD, yr) 53.1 ± 13.9
Sex (M:F) 34:81
Eye (right:left) 59:56
Dacryocystitis (acute:chronic) 31:84
External dacryocystorhinostomy:Endoscopic endonasal dacryocystorhinostomy 26:89
Systemic disease (+:-) 42:73

* Systemic diseases are all chronic diseases which need continuous medical management, including diabetes, hypertension and etc.

Table 2.
Bacterial isolates from lacrimal punctum and lacrimal sac cultures according to the type of dacryocystitis
Microorganism Number of samples from the lacrimal punctum (acute:chronic) Number of samples from the lacrimal sac (acute:chronic)
Gram positive
Staphyococcus epidermidis 23 (10:13) 10 (3:7)
Staphylococcus aureus 16 (5:11) 18 (7:11)
 Coagulase negative Staphylococcus 4 (2:2) 3 (0:3)
Streptococcus pneumoniae 6 (3:3) 7 (3:4)
Streptococcus viridans 5 (3:2) 4 (3:1)
 Others 6 (1:5) 3 (1:2)
Gram negative
Enterobacter aerogenes 12 (4:8) 12 (5:7)
Pseudomonas aeroginosa 10 (4:6) 9 (3:6)
Klebsiella pneumoniae 9 (3:6)
Serratia marcescens 3 (1:2) 5 (1:4)
 Others 4 (1:3) 1 (0:1)
Total 98 (38:60) 72 (24:48)
Table 3.
The index of coincidence in bacterial isolates cultured from both the lacrimal punctum and the lacrimal sac
Microorganism Number of patients Coincidence (%)
Gram positive
Staphyococcus epidermidis 3 5.0 (3/60)
Staphylococcus aureus 15 25.0 (15/60)
 Coagulase negative Staphylococcus
Streptococcus pneumoniae 4 6.7 (4/60)
Gram negative
Enterobacter aerogenes 5 8.3 (5/60)
Pseudomonas aeroginosa 7 11.7 (7/60)
Klebsiella pneumoniae
Serratia marcescens 1 1.7 (1/60)
Streptococcus viridans 2 3.3 (2/60)
Total number of same bacterial isolates in both lacrimal sac and punctum 37 61.7 (37/60)
Total number of positive-culture results in both lacrimal sac and punctum 60
Table 4.
Review of literature of organisms cultured from the lacrimal sac
Microorganism Our study (%) DeAngelis et al8(%) Razavi et al13(%) Chaudhry et al2(%)
The number of culture positive samples 72 65 61 183
Gram positive
Staphyococcus epidermidis 10 (13.9) 27 (41.5) 29 (47.5) 63 (34.4)
Staphylococcus aureus 18 (25.0) 12 (18.5) 8 (13.1) 49 (26.8)
 Coagulase negative Staphylococcus 3 (4.2)
Streptococcus pneumoniae 7 (9.7) 3 (4.6) 1 (1.6) 23 (12.6)
Streptococcus viridans 4 (5.6) 2 (3.1) 25 (13.7)
Gram negative
Enterobacter aerogenes 12 (16.7) 5 (2.7)
Pseudomonas aeroginosa 9 (12.5) 4 (6.2) 2 (3.3) 19 (10.4)
Klebsiella pneumoniae 5 (8.2) 8 (4.4)
Serratia marcescens 5 (6.9) 3 (1.6)
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