Background: Bacteremia represents high rates of morbidity and mortality, especially in developing countries, Fan Grill highlighting the need for a diagnostic method that allows prompt and appropriate patient treatment.This study compared microbiological performance and adherence of two blood culture protocols for the diagnosis of bacteremia.Methods: Quasi-experimental study conducted between June 2022 and February 2023.
Two blood culture protocols were evaluated.Protocol 1 included two aerobic bottles and one anaerobic bottle.Protocol 2 included two aerobic and two anaerobic bottles.
Protocols were analyzed in three phases: evaluation of protocol 1 (Phase 1); evaluation of protocol 1 plus educational activities for healthcare staff (Phase 2) and evaluation of protocol 2 (Phase 3).Results: 342 patients and 1155 blood culture bottles (732 aerobic and 423 anaerobic) were included.Positivity was 17.
6 %, 22.8 % and 19.4 % in phases 1, 2 and 3, respectively.
Among patients with bacteremia, 84.5 % had Swabs positive anaerobic bottles, with 9.9 % showing growth only in this bottle.
The contamination rates were 1.9 %, 0.3 %, and 0.
8 % for each phase, mainly in aerobic bottles.Median positivity time was 11 h for both bottes aerobic and anaerobic.Overall nursing adherence increased from 13.
1 % in Phase 1, 25.9 % in Phase 2, and 28.1 % in Phase 3 (p = 0.
009).Conclusions: The findings indicate that adding a second anaerobic bottle does not enhance blood culture positivity.Rather than increasing bottle quantity, staff training might be a more effective approach to optimize results.