An overview of the microflora of the patients admitted in an Ear Nose and Throat tertiary hospital from Romania

Objective: The purpose of this retrospective study is to describe clinical, epidemiological and bacteriological findings on the Ear, Nose and Throat infections from patients admitted in a tertiary hospital from Romania, which might bring supportive data for the management of the ENT patients.
Methods: Clinical data from 146 patients admitted in a clinic from Romania, between February 2016 and April 2018 were collected from the official registries of the Microbiology Laboratory, where the collected samples were processed by classical microbiological methods.
Results: From 164 analyzed biological samples, 45.1% were suggestive for infection. Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus was the most prevalent bacterial isolate (28.72%), followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12.77%). There were 26 different species of microbes. Out of a total of 77 bacterial isolates, 62.33% were Gram positive and 37.66% Gram negative. The study showed that 11 ear discharge samples were positive in female and male patients. Upper respiratory tract exudates were positive on 3 females (21.4%) and on 17 males (28.8%). There were 7 positive pus samples from females, and from 25 males.
Conclusions: Men were more affected by Ear Nose and Throat infections, caused by bacteria mostly from the genus Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas. More attention at the samples collection and a rigorous clinical examination should reduce the load on bacteriology laboratory. In specific cases, a negative bacteriological result can prove as an exclusion diagnostic.