Bacterial pathogens in semen culture and their antibiotic susceptibility pattern in vitro

Abstract

Background: Bacterial infections have been recognized with infertility, bacteria are capable of agglutinating and immobilizing spermatozoa. The aim of present study was to determine bacterial pathogens in semen culture from infertile men and their antibiotic susceptibility pattern in vitro. Method: Semen samples were collected for routine culture and antibiotic susceptibility test and were processed according to the standard microbiology techniques. Results: A total of 347 semen specimens were cultured, of which 62 (17.8%) showed significant bacterial growth. Eight different species of bacterial organisms were isolated out of them 37% isolates were gram positive and 62.9% isolates were gram negative. The commonest isolates were Escherichia coli (41.9%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (17.7%), Streptococcus faecalis (11.2%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (9.6%), Staphylococcus saprophyticus (8%), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4.8%). The maximum numbers of culture positive cases (46.7%) were found in patients 31-40 year age group. Both gram positive and gram negative organisms were sensitive to nitrofurantoin (91.5%) and (71.7%) followed by ampicillin- sulbactam (73.9%) and (58.9%), levofloxacin (56.5%) and (71.7%) and gentamycin (56.5%) and (53.8%) respectively. E. coli was found susceptible to nitrofurantoin (76.9%), followed by levofloxacin (69.2%), ampicillin sulbactam (57.6%) and gentamycin (61.5%) and co-trimoxazole (50%). Staphylococcus aureus was found 81.83% sensitive to nitrofurantoin followed by lavofloxacin (63.6%) and gentamycin (54.5%). Conclusion: For empirical treatment nitrofurantion seems to be drug of choice followed by lavofloxacin and ampicillin sulbactam. The regular screening of bacterial pathogen in infertile man seems necessary because it affects infertility in several ways.