RESUMO
The study was carried out on two groups--the study group consisting of 50 women with acute pelvic inflammatory disease and the control group consisting of 20 women admitted for tubal ligation. Pouch of Douglas aspirates were collected under all aseptic precautions with 18 gauge medicut needle. The samples were transferred to thioglycollate broth. A direct Gram staining was done followed by plating on media for aerobic and anaerobic incubation. All cultures were sterile in the control group. There were both monomicrobial (56.7%) and polymicrobial (43.2%) isolates in the study group. The predominant aerobic isolates were coagulase negative Staphylococci, E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Amongst anaerobic isolates gram negative bacilli were the most common at 46.6% followed by gram positive cocci at 40%.