Purpose: To evaluate bacterial contamination of autologous serum eyedroppers after topical use. Methods: Autologous serum eyedroppers used for ocular surface diseases were submitted to culture after topical use. A total of 127 eyedroppers was cultivated after the patients had used the drops and returned them to the laboratory. Results: We found that 76.03% of the eyedroppers were contaminated. Nine-two microorganisms were found: coagulase-negative Staphy-lococcus (35.86%), Alcaligenes sp (21.73%), Klebsiella sp (20.65%) and Bacillus sp (9.78%). Conclusion: The eye-dropper contamination can be caused by normal flora and by skin and environmental microorganisms. These results show the contamination risk at the moment of instillation. Further research will be done to evaluate fungal contamination and to correlate the patient's normal flora with microorganisms found in the eyedroppers.
Ophthalmic solutions; Drug contamination; Bacterial eye infections; Staphylococcus; Alcaligenes; Klebsiella