Laboratory Test Reference Guide

Purple top bacterial swab. ENT swabs with small tips of cotton wool can be used for sites where regular swabs are too large.

Waikato Hospital Laboratory - Swab Guide

Send material (fluid or tissue) if available for culture, not swabs.

If available, material like pus or tissue (put in a urine container, without formalin) rather than a swab should be sent for culture.  Nasal swabs are not informative for sinusitis and will not be cultured.

For respiratory virus testing, collect a formal nasopharyngeal swab using a special virus swab.

Avoid wound cultures in emergency department patients with uncomplicated skin and soft tissue abscesses after successful incision and drainage and with adequate medical follow-up.

• Do not take a swab or use antibiotics for the management of a leg ulcer without clinical infection.
• Do not obtain swabs from superficial ulcers for culture as they are prone to both false positive and false negative results with respect to the cause of the infection.
• Do not routinely obtain swabs during surgical procedures when fluid or tissue samples can be collected.
• Do not swab the nasal cavity as part of the work up for rhinosinusitis
• Do not send swabs for culture unless part of an accepted protocol (eg neutropaenic sepsis or throat infection) or if antibiotic therapy has failed.

Gram stain is not routinely performed. Please contact laboratory if gram stain is required.