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Blood Cultures

Related tests: Bacterial wound culture, CSF analysis, Full blood count, Fungal infections, Susceptibility testing, Influenza tests, Urine culture

Common Questions

1.  Why do I have to take antibiotics for so long if I feel better already?

It is important to remove all of the bacteria that are causing the problem. For some infections several weeks of treatment are necessary. This is especially important if you have endocarditis, which requires long-term therapy to cure.

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2.  Why do the blood culture results take so long?

The bacteria or yeast must grow in the nutrient media before they can be detected and identified. Usually this happens within a couple of days, but in some cases and with some microorganisms it can take longer. Sometimes .the microorganisms are present in the blood in very small numbers and they must have a sufficient time to grow to the quantities that can be detected.

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3.  Why did my doctor have more blood cultures taken after the initial cultures were collected?

Additional blood cultures may be taken to find out if bacteria present in the first cultures remain in the blood stream (true pathogens). If bacteria are not present in follow up cultures, then bacteria from the skin may have contaminated the initial cultures. Additional blood cultures may also be taken if you continue to have signs of sepsis, but no microorganisms are recovered from the first cultures collected.

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