Effect of Hemodialysis Duration on Conjunctival Bacterial Flora and Susceptibility of Conjunctival Bacterial Isolates to Fluoroquinolones

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the differences between conjunctival bacterial flora of hemodialysis patients and healthy subjects, the effect of duration of hemodialysis on conjunctival bacterial flora, and in vitro antibiotic susceptibility patterns of conjunctival bacterial flora to fluoroquinolones.

Methods: Sixty healthy subjects (32 male, 28 female) and 60 hemodialysis patients (33 male, 27 female) who had renal failure due to reasons other than diabetic nephropathy and with no previous history of intraocular surgery participated in this study. Statistical analysis of the difference between the culture positivity of hemodialysis patients and a control group was determined using the chi-square test. Pearson's correlation test was used to quantify the correlations among culture positivity and duration of hemodialysis.

Results: Conjunctival culture positivity of the hemodialysis patients and the control group was 58.3 and 45.0%, respectively, and there was no statistically significant difference between these groups (p = 0.144). Pearson's correlation test revealed that there was a weak but statistically significant positive correlation between culture positivity and duration of hemodialysis (r value was 0.378 [p = 0.003]). Staphylococcus aureus (28.3%) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (20.0%) were the most frequently isolated organisms in the hemodialysis patients, Staphylococcus epidermidis (26.7%) and Staphylococcus aureus (6.7%) were the most frequently isolated organisms in the control group. Resistance of most frequently isolated organisms (Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis) from control group and hemodialysis patients to ofloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin, and gatifloxacin were 20, 15, 5, and 5%, and 34.5, 20.7, 6.9, and 6.9%, respectively.

Conclusions: As distinct from the control group, S. aureus colonization was isolated more from the hemodialysis patients. Culture positivity of the hemodialysis patients was positively correlated with the duration of hemodialysis. Antibiotic susceptibility of isolates from conjunctival bacterial flora of hemodialysis patients were less than healthy control group.

• Antibiotic susceptibility
• conjunctival flora
• fluoroquinolone
• hemodialysis
• hemodialysis duration

Notes

*A part of this study was presented at the 3rd World Congress on Controversies in Ophthalmology in Istanbul, Turkey. A part of this study has been sent to the 16th Afro Asian Congress of Ophthalmology and the 5th Mediterranean Retina Meeting in Istanbul, Turkey and submitted for poster presentation.