Incidence and Pattern of Bacterial Growth in Propofol Vial - An In vitro Study.

Introduction- Propofol vials are often used in parts or are opened and left unattended. This has lead to blood stream infections, surgical site infections and acute febrile episodes. A prospective observational study was undertaken to know the incidence and pattern of bacterial growth in samples of Propofol in tropical climate. Materials and methods- Samples were collected from vials of propofol of different brands, both with and without edetate at different time intervals with relation to room temperature. Each sample of 1ml were inoculated in Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) and incubated for 48hours. Presence of bacterial growth and their patternwere studied. Statistical analysis used- Paired t test for categorical variables and for non categorical variables Levine's test and Pearson correlation. Results- Overall 42.26% of samples showed bacterial growth. The incidence was more in samples of propofol without edetate (43.75%) compared to samples with edetate (41.97 %). Most common organismwas Staphylococcus aureus, followed by Enterococcus, Acinetobacter, Bacillus species, Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus citrus. Conclusion- Propofol vial once opened favours bacterial colonisation and growth. Adding edetate to propofol has not shown much benefit in decreasing the incidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]