Antimicrobial activity of ropivacaine and other local anaesthetics.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: It is claimed that local anaesthetics have antimicrobial properties. Our aim was to investigate the antimicrobial effects of different concentrations of ropivacaine, bupivacaine, lidocaine and prilocaine on Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans. METHODS: All local anaesthetic dilutions were exposed to microorganisms for 0, 30, 60, 120, 240 min at room temperature. The inoculums taken from diluted suspensions were reinoculated on blood agar and incubated for 18-24 h at 35 degrees C and then the colonies were counted. RESULTS: Ropivacaine did not inhibit any of the microorganisms tested. Bupivacaine reduced the viable cells of P. aeruginosa at 0.5% and 0.25% solutions. Lidocaine 5% and 2% and prilocaine 2.0% dilutions reduced the viable cells of all microorganisms tested. Prilocaine 1.0% reduced the viable cells of E. coli, S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. Lidocaine 1% reduced only the viable cells of P. aeruginosa and prilocaine 0.5% reduced only E. coli. CONCLUSION: Ropivacaine had no antimicrobial effect on microorganisms tested. Bupivacaine showed poor antimicrobial effectiveness. Lidocaine and prilocaine had more powerful antimicrobial effects than the other two local anaesthetics.

Possible asymptomatic carrier of salmonella typhimurium in the preputium: a case report.

Salmonella infections lead to several clinical syndromes such as acute gastroenteritis and bacteremia. Less frequent manifestations are extraintestinal focal infections, including urinary tract infections. A 10-month-old boy was admitted to the hospital with recurrent urinary tract infections treated with antibiotics. Salmonella typhimurium was isolated from the urine samples obtained in urine bags. The organism was also grown from a suprapreputial swab, but was not grown in the suprapubic urine specimen. Renal ultrasonography, intravenous pyelography and voiding cystourethrogram were found normal. The patient was then circumcised, following with no uropathogens were isolated from the urine. It is believed that circumcision not only prevented further urinary tract infection and protected the case from becoming a carrier of Salmonella typhimurium, it also halted a possible spread of Salmonella infection to the general public.