MICROBIAL CONTAMINATION OF PRESERVED OPHTHALMIC DROPS IN OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENTS: POSSIBILITY OF AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF USE

Ocular infections may arise from topical ophthalmic medications. A standard imposed by the British Pharmaceutical Codex implies that eye drops should be discarded after 1-day use when these remedies are used in outpatient departments. In this study the bioburden rates arising from 2, 4 and 7 days’ use were evaluated and compared with those of 1 day’s use to determine whether it is possible to extend the period of use of preserved eye drops in outpatient departments. A total of 200 eye drops were taken from outpatient departments of Farabi Eye Hospital after 1, 2, 4 and 7 days’ use and the contamination rates of the residual contents, caps and droppers were determined using conventional techniques. High biobudren rates were obtained in all the samples tested. Although the overall recorded incidences of microbial contamination in the 2 and 4-day drops were not considerably different from those of first day (P>0.01) but those of 7 days’ use were significant (P<0.01). However, when contamination rate of drop contents was taken into account there was a significant difference between 4 and 7 days’ use compared to 1-day drops. Most of the isolated organisms were either of human flora types of Gram-positive bacteria or air-borne fungi. It is concluded that the use of eye drops for outpatient practice may be extended up to 2 days; yet, care should be taken to reduce the overall contamination rates of these preparations for prevention of ocular nosocomial infections.