Laboratory Methods In Anaerobic Bacteriology

Anaerobic Bacteriology: Clinical and Laboratory Practice, Third edition discusses the importance of the non-sporing anaerobic bacteria as a significant cause of infection in man. This edition updates the anaerobic methodology, systematics, and ecological and pathogenetic associations of the non-sporing anaerobes. The descriptive bacteriology of the non-clostridial anaerobes and clinical syndromes produced by them in man are also considered. Other topics discussed include the anaerobic jar, inoculation of media, and antibiotic susceptibility testing of anaerobes. The histotoxic clostridia of infected wounds, anaerobic cocci, and infections related to the gastrointestinal tract are also elaborated. This text likewise covers the uterine gas gangrenous infections and other clostridial infections. This book is a good source for medical practitioners, clinicians, and medical students concerned with anaerobic bacteria.

Clinicians are becoming more aware and concerned about anaerobic bacterial infections as more is learned about these anaerobic bacteria. An attempt will be made in this manual to provide the information to perform an evaluation for each individual laboratory concerning the possible addition of the routine culture of anaerobe to their laboratory analysis of body fluids and tissue specimens.

This book is appropriate for advanced undergraduate students of micro biology and biological sciences in universities and colleges, as well as for research workers entering the field and requiring a broad contemporary view of anaerobic bacteria and associated concepts. Obligate anaerobes, together with microaerophils, are characterized by their sensitivity to oxygen. This dictates specialized laboratory methods a fact which has led to many students being less familiar with anaerobes than their distribution and importance would warrant The metabolic strategies such as methanogenesis, an oxygenic photosynthesis and diverse fermenta tive pathways which do not have equivalents in aerobic bacteria also make anaerobes worthy of attention. In these limited pages an attempt has been made to cover the varied aspects of anaerobic bacteria, and a bibliography has been included, which will allow individual topics to be pursued in greater detail. We are grateful to Mrs Winifred Webster and Mrs Hilary Holdsworth for typing the manuscript and to the Leeds University Audio Visual Service for preparing the figures. Finally, our thanks go to the students, postgradu ates and wives who read and criticized the manuscript.