Antibiogram

An antibiogram consists of testing antibiotic susceptibilities for common bacterial pathogens. With time, many bacterial species have developed resistance to many widely used antibiotics. For the same bacterial strand, this resistance can be specific to certain geographical areas.

The antibiogram therefore allows the physician to select the most appropriate antibiotic for the bacterial strain identified in his own geographical area. For each positive pathological strain identified, the bacteria will be identified as either sensitive (S), resistant (R) or of intermediate sensitivity (I) to each antibiotic tested. The antibiogram is not examined for non-pathological strains or when the specimen was externally contaminated.