Bedside inoculation of blood culture bottles with ascitic fluid is superior to delayed inoculation in the detection of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis

Abstract

Ascitic fluids from patients suspected of having spontaneous bacterial peritonitis were inoculated into blood culture bottles (i) at the bedside and (ii) in the laboratory after a delay. In 29 episodes in which the bedside bottles were culture positive, only 22 (75.9%) of the laboratory-inoculated sets demonstrated growth; this difference was statistically significant (P < 0.02).