Blood cultures.

[mjl1717]

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Is there an astute doc here who knows the average time it should take for blood culture results to return in a teaching hospital ? (something often taken for granted)

 

[Rendar5]

as early as 1 day if positive at least for a gram stain, it will take 5 days to return a negative result generally because they ahve to check back each day for growth. All depends on the institution what time of day they read it and how long they'll eventually keep it. But when the positive result comes back, it's a matter of the bacteria and the concentration more than anything else.

 

[mjl1717]

Thank you!

 

[jdh71]

as early as 1 day if positive at least for a gram stain, it will take 5 days to return a negative result generally because they ahve to check back each day for growth. All depends on the institution what time of day they read it and how long they'll eventually keep it. But when the positive result comes back, it's a matter of the bacteria and the concentration more than anything else.

This is true. I'd also add that generally, you'll have positive results in ~24-36hrs, and you'll usually go off of the first "no growth reported to date" as negative culture even if the full 5 days have no gone full for practical purposes of treating patients.