Clinical use
Investigation for bacterial or fungal infection of the cornea.
Background
Corneal scrapings will be collected by an ophthalmic surgeon. Because of the small amounts of material involved, inoculation of plates and preparation of slides will be done at the patients’ side.
Patient preparation
None required
Specimen requirements
Corneal scrape kits must be requested from the Microbiology department prior to the procedure commencing. The kit will include 4 agar plates and 1 slide inside a slide box. Instructions are provided and must be followed for optimum investigation of the sample.
Additional tests requested and relevant clinical details must be provided to aid diagnosis.
If acanthamoeba is suspected please send contact lens fluid with or without the contact lens or, a sterile saline flush of the needle used to perform the scrape procedure (this is a referred test – please see acanthamoeba information).
Limitations & restrictions
Scalpels or needles used to perform the corneal scrape procedure MUST NOT be sent to the laboratory.
Turnaround time
3 weeks (all samples are cultured for bacteria and fungi)
Analysing laboratory
Microbiology Lab, James Cook University Hospital, Marton Road, TS4 3BW
Additional information
Please refer to the “corneal scrapes for microscopy and culture” for details on this procedure