Bacteriology of human bite wound infections.

This study was designed to define the bacteriology of infected soft-tissue wounds from human bites, and to compare this with the bacteriology of infected animal bites in humans as determined in previous studies. The specimens were collected from 57 patients presenting to emergency rooms at 12 locations around the country. Three hundred and eighty organisms were isolated (224 aerobes and 156 anaerobes), for an average of 6.6 per specimen. The most prevalent anaerobes recovered were Prevotella spp. (34%), while streptococci comprised 44% of all aerobic organisms, over half of which were in the "Streptococcus milleri" group, particularly S. anginosus. The study demonstrated that the pathogens in human bite infections differ considerably from those present in animal bites.