Anaerobic and aerobic bacterial flora of acute conjunctivitis in children.

Aerobic and anaerobic cultures and clinical data were obtained from 126 pediatric patients with acute conjunctivitis. Similar cultures were obtained from 66 persons who did not have a conjunctival inflammation. Anaerobes were isolated from 47 patients (37.3%). In 26 cases (20.6%), they were in mixed cultures with aerobes, and in 21 cases (16.7%), they were the only isolates. Aerobes alone were recovered in 72 patients (57.1%). No bacterial growth was noted in seven patients (5.6%). The organisms recovered from eyes with conjunctivitis in statistically significant numbers were Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and anaerobic Gram-postive cocci.