Severe Ocular Bacterial Infections: A Retrospective Study Over 13 Years.

<bold>Purpose: </bold>To report data of samples collected from January 2000 to August 2013, in the Department of Diagnosis and Laboratory Analysis, Ophthalmic Hospital, Turin, Italy, from different types of ocular infections and their antibiotic susceptibility.<bold>Methods: </bold>Collected samples were cultured using both liquid and solid media. Then bacterial isolates were tested for antibiotic susceptibility using the Kirby-Bauer diffusion method and the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) serum standards.<bold>Results: </bold>Staphylococcus aureus is the most common bacteria isolated in ocular samples.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>In vitro susceptibility tests showed that levofloxacin and moxifloxacin (introduced only in 2010) had the highest efficacy against bacterial isolates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]