ABSTRACT
Background Low back pain is an important, worldwide clinical problem from which human populations are suffering. It has been suggested that Propionibacterium acnes is associated with low back pain. The objective of this clinical study is to evaluate the P. acnes infection in the disc material and antibiotic susceptibility in patients with disc herniation.
Methods A total of 120 patients with disc herniation surgery were enrolled in the study. The samples were excited during discectomy and then cultured in both anaerobic and aerobic incubations. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was performed for determination of antibiotic susceptibility.
Results Of 120 samples, 60 (50%) samples were positive for microorganisms. Disc herniation was at the level of L4-L5 in 63 cases and L5-S1 in 57 cases.
Conclusions According to the results and presence of P. acnes in more than 35% of the cultured samples, the presence of P. acnes in lumbar disc herniation is a suspected element leading to this condition. After analysis of the antibiotics, the lowest MIC value was identified for amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, rifampicin, tetracycline, vancomycin; the moderate MIC value was for fusidic acid; and the highest MIC value was for gentamicin and trimethoprim.
Footnotes
Disclosures and COI: The authors received no funding for this study and report no conflicts of interest.
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