Aerobic and anaerobic microbiology of intra-abdominal abscesses in children.

In this study of the aerobic and anaerobic microbiology of 23 intra-abdominal abscesses, aerobic bacteria alone were present in one specimen, anaerobic bacteria only in four, and mixed aerobic and anaerobic flora in 18. Ninety bacterial isolates (3.9 isolates per specimen), 63 anaerobic (2.7 per specimen), and 27 aerobic and facultative (1.2 per specimen) isolates were recovered. The predominant organisms were Bacteroides fragilis group (23 isolates), Peptostreptococcus sp (20 isolates), and Escherichia coli (15 isolates). This study demonstrates the polymicrobial aerobic-anaerobic etiology of intra-abdominal abscesses in children.