Evaluation of postmortem bacterial culture results: A retrospective study

Postmortem blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and various clinical samples are sent to the medical microbiology laboratory for bacteriological examination in order to determine the cause of death. This study aimed to investigate the results of postmortem cultures sent to our laboratory from different clinics between January 2005 and August 2011. The culture results were retrospectively analyzed from the laboratory records. Various clinical samples obtained from 94 subjects for bacteriological examination between the above-mentioned dates were sent to the laboratory. Of the cases, 89 were from the pediatrics and the pediatric emergency department, and five were from other clinics. A single sample was sent from 26 cases, and two or more samples were sent from 68 cases for bacteriological examination. Bacterial growth was reported in 21 (35%) out of 60 blood cultures, 6 (10.3%) out of 58 CSF samples, 9 (18.8%) out of 48 urine samples, 29 (80.6%) out of 36 tracheal aspirates and 1 (16.7%) out of six the other samples. Bacterial growth was reported to be at a higher extent in the tracheal aspirate and the blood samples among the cultures. While Candida species and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated most in the tracheal aspirate samples, coagulase negative staphylococcus and Klebsiella pneumoniae were isolated from blood cultures.