Urine Culture Contamination: A One-Year Retrospective Study at the Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Urine culture contamination results in significant cause of delay in treatment of patients being investigated for urinary tract Infection. Though contamination is not completely avoidable, several precautionary measures like proper patients education regarding collection of samples and proper instructions to paramedical staff regarding sample handling and transport helps in reducing the contamination. AIM: To determine the frequency and factors associated with urine culture contamination in samples submitted to the hospital Microbiology Laboratory. METHOD: Retrospective study of urine culture contamination in which data from the hospital Laboratory from January 1 to December 31 2013 were reviewed. Patients' age, gender, location and urine culture results were assessed. Contamination rates for different genders, age groups and departments were assessed and results are recorded. RESULTS: Over all urine contamination rate was 16.63%. Females had a contamination rate of 21.50%, which was significantly higher than the contamination rate of 9.44% in males. The Gynecology and Antenatal clinics had the highest contamination rates amongst departments with 22.5% and 21.3% respectively. Lowest contamination rates were in Emergency Unit (EPU) and intensive Care Unit (ICU) with rates of 5.9%and 9.5% respectively. The female gender was found to be the most significant predictor of higher contamination rate. CONCLUSION: Contamination rate of urine cultures in this study is high. Appropriate interventions need to be instituted to reduce the current urine culture contamination rate in the tertiary care hospital at Mysore.