Isolation of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria from clean surgical wounds: an experimental and clinical study.

A pad imprint method was evaluated for quantitative sampling of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria from clean surgical wounds. The best recovery of bacteria from the pads was obtained when they were treated with a rinsing solution in a 'Stomacher' apparatus. Pads of three different fabrics were compared, but no difference was noted in their efficiency in sampling anaerobic and aerobic bacteria from clean surgical wounds. Sampling of known quantities of Staphylococcus aureus from experimental wounds in rabbits performed with the pad method gave a threefold better recovery than with a swab. The pad method was superior to the wound wash-out method when sampling wounds in hip surgery.