Comparison of a homemade blood culture broth containing a papain digest of liver, with four commercially available media for the isolation of anaerobes from simulated paediatric blood cultures.

The recovery of small inocula of fastidious organisms, mainly non-sporing anaerobes, was studied in simulated paediatric blood culture experiments where only 1.5 ml of blood was added to each broth. A 25 ml homemade Queen Elizabeth Hospital medium (QEH medium) containing a papain digest of liver showed the best overall performance during the first four days of incubation; this medium was also satisfactory for maintenance of the majority of the organisms tested for longer than one week. LAB M Fastidious Anaerobe Broth (75 ml) with thymidine, also showed early isolation and satisfactory survival of most organisms. Difco Thiol broth, 50 ml with Liquoid, yielded early growth of the three strains of Bacteroides fragilis tested and maintained these organisms well; however, variable results were obtained with some other organisms in Difco Thiol media. Southern Group Brewer's thioglycollate broth (80 ml) gave the least satisfactory performance.