A retrospective study of orofacial infections admitted to the oral and maxillofacial surgery service at Woodhull hospital between 2004 and 2011. The inclusion criteria consisted of infections that were limited solely to the orofacial region and that was serious enough to required IV antibiotics on an inpatient basis. Patients of all demographics, race, sex, and age were included in the study even when no isolates were found so as to be able to determine the percentage of each organism. During the period there were 94 admissions with an age range between 8 and 84 with an average age of 42.3. The study showed a distinct difference in the incidence of microbial isolates found in the Woodhull Medical Center population versus the general population. A significant incidence of staph aureus infection was found in the Woodhull population which was 15/94 (15.96%) versus the general population at 1.275%. In addition, a higher incidence of aerobic species were found which can be due to many factors including technique utilized to obtain cultures, contamination, mixed infection and prolonged time to culture due to work-flow issues. Anaerobes such as Prevotella were found to grow in 5/94(5.32%) of cases compared to the 28.125% found in general US population studies. Based on the data, the incidence of no growth was found to be 19/94 (20.21%) compared to 8% in the general population which can help to drive the quality improvement of lab cultures throughout orofacial infection cases.

Conflict of interest: None declared.