Study of the causative agents of the infection of lacrimal drainage system.

This study included collection of (103) swabs samples taken from patients suffering from nasolacrimal duct obstruction (NLDO) in Ibn Al- Haetham Teaching Eye Hospital /Baghdad. When these samples were cultured on special media, ninety samples gave positive results for bacteria, while no isolate was belonged to the yeast and fungi. Positive samples were identified by using cultural, microscopical and biochemical examinations for diagnosis. After confirming the final diagnosis by using (API) system specified for each type of bacteria, the following types and percentages of bacteria were detected:- Staphylococcus epidermidis (28.9%), Staphylococcus aureus(18.9%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (11.1%), Streptococcus pyogenes (10%), Corynebacterium diphtheriae (6.8%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (5.6%), Escherichia coli (4.4%) , Propionibacterium spp. (4.4%), Haemophilus influenzae (3.3%) , Listeria grayi (2.2%) and
Morganella morganii (1.1%). According to such results Staphylococcus epidermidis was the predominant bacteria among sample taken from patients suffering from nasolacrimal duct obstruction, followed by Staphylococcus aureus. Accordingly, the ratio of (NLDO) cases in children under 10 years was (48.5%) comparing with those other aged groups, and according to the gender the percentage in females were (59.2%) and in males (40.8%). Results of antibiotic sensitivity test for (12) different antibiotics revealed that ciprofloxacin, vancomycin and neomycin were the most effective against the isolates, while other antibiotics varied in their effect. However, most isolated bacteria were resistant to tetracycline. After culturing Lactobacillus plantarum in liquid and on solid growth media to test its ability to exhibit inhibitory action against bacterial isolates of (NLDO) patients, it was noticed that it had good inhibitory action when cultured on solid growth media ,especially against gram positive bacteria. Also the inhibitory action increased to a large extent against all types of bacterial isolates with increasing concentration of bacterial filtrate. The results of propagating both Saccharomyces boulardii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a number of culture media (tea, sabouraud and sabouraud enriched with yeast extract) showed that the yeasts grown in sabouraud enriched media possessed best inhibitory action against (NLDO) bacterial isolates especially after increasing the concentration of yeast filtrate for several times. When filtrates of each isolate Lactobacillus plantarum and yeasts Saccharomyces boulardii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae with ampicillin antibiotic (each one separately), results showed higher inhibitory action against Staphylococcus epidermidis (the common isolated bacteria from (NLDO)) compared with the using the filtrates of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts or antibiotic alone.