Advanced Diagnostic Laboratories

Collect

Aspirate: Aspirate the wound using a needle and syringe. Nonbacteriostatic saline can be injected subcutaneously if needed. Remove needle, cap syringe, then send to the laboratory as soon as possible.

Drainage: Aspirate drainage fluid aseptically from the drainage site. If not possible aspirate from the drainage collection tubing after the tubing has been decontaminated. 

Swab: Only use when there is not enough pus or fluid to aspirate.Using a sterile swab, collect the sample deep into the lesion at its advancing edge. Two swabs prefered, one for gram stain and one for culture.

Minimum of 0.5mL of fluid

Patient Prep

Collect specimen prior to initation of therapy.

Open wounds:

• Debride, then thoroghly rinse with sterile saline 

Closed wound or aspirates:

• clean with 2% chlorhexidine or 70% alcohol followed by
  iodine solution. The iodine solution should be removed before collecting
  the sample.

Disinfect any collection tubing before collecting drainage samples.

Unacceptable Conditions

• Frozen specimen
• Refrigerated specimen
• Specimens in formalin
• <0.5ml of fluid
• Mislabeled or unlabeled specimen

Storage Transport Temp

Transport to the laboratory as soon as possibleroom temperature (20-25°C).

 

Stability

24 hours at room temperature (20-25°C).

Performed

7 days a week from 8am to 6pm

Methodology

Conventional culture

Turnaround Time

Expected turn around time is 3 days

Department

Microbiology Lab

Synonyms

WSUPR, lesion culture, skin wound

Study Offerings

Not offered

Reference Interval

Potenial for normal comensal flora.

Interpretation

The table below describes reportable organism and if antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is routinely included. If susceptibilites are needed for an organims that AST is not routinely included, please contact ADx Client Services to submit a request.  

Organism	Threshold for workup	Reporting
Acinetobacter baumanni complex	Pure or predominant	ID and AST
Actinomyces spp.	Pure or predominant	ID
Aeromonas hydrophila	Any	ID and AST‡
Aracanobacterium haemolyticum	Any	ID and AST‡
Bacillus anthracis	Any	ID
Bacillus spp. (not anthracis)	Pure	ID
Bartonella spp.	Any	ID
Burkholderia mallei	Any	ID
Burkholderia pseudomallei	Any	ID
Candida spp.	Pure or predominant	ID
Capnocytophaga  spp.	Any	ID
Coagulase-negative staphylococci (not listed individually)	Pure	ID
Corynebacterium diptheriae	Any	ID and AST‡
Corynebacterium kroppenstedtii	Any	ID and AST‡
Corynebacterium minutissimum	Any	ID and AST‡
Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis	Any	ID and AST‡
Corynebacterium ulcerans	Any	ID and AST‡
Eikenella spp.	Pure or predominant	ID
Enterobacterales (not listed separately)	Pure or predominant	ID and AST
Enterococcus spp.	Pure or predominant	ID and AST
Francisella tularensis	Any	ID
Haemophilus ducreyi	Any	ID
Neisseria gonorrhoeae	Any	ID
Nocardia spp.	Any	ID and AST
Non-glucose fermenting GNR	Pure or predominant	ID and AST
Other anaerobes	Pure	ID and AST‡
Pasteurella spp.	Any	ID; β-lactamase
Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Any	ID and AST
Staphylococcus aureus	Any	ID and AST
Staphylococcus intermedius group	Pure or predominant	ID and AST
Staphylococcus lugdunensis	Pure or predominant	ID and AST
Staphylococcus schleiferi	Pure or predominant	ID and AST
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia	Pure or predominant	ID and AST
Streptococcus agalactiae (group B)	Pure or predominant	ID
Streptococcus anginosus	Pure or predominant	ID
Streptococcus pneumoniae	Any	ID and AST
Streptococcus pyogenes (group A)	Any	ID
Vibrio vulnificus	Any	ID and AST‡
Viridans group Streptococcus	Pure	ID
Yersinia pestis	Any	ID

^‡AST is not performed in house; isolate will be sent to reference lab for susceptibility testing

CPT Code

87205, 87070

New York Approved

Standard

FDA

Standard Method