International Journal of Advances in Nursing Management

Swetha Venugopal, Kannan Gopalan, et al (2014) conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study on epidemiology and clinico-investigative study of organisms causing vaginal discharge. Abnormal vaginal discharge is a common clinical problem in reproductive age group. It is the second most common problem after abnormal uterine bleeding. It is a neglected health problem, most commonly caused due to vulvovaginal candidiasis, trichomoniasis, and bacterial vaginosis. The total of selected 100 women in the reproductive age group who presented with abnormal vaginal discharge andhad symptoms of vaginitis were examinedfrom the Vinayaka Mission KirupanandaVariyar Medical College Hospital, Salem. The findings of studyincluded that 77 (77%) cases were organism positive. Among the positive cases, bacterial vaginitis (27%) was the most common microbiological cause of abnormal vaginal discharge, followed by trichomoniasis (25%), vaginal candidiasis (22%), combined infection (Candida and BV) (3%), and nonspecific cases (23%). Hence, the study concluded that out of 100 cases, few cases showed discordance between clinical and laboratory diagnosis. This discordance can be due to pitfalls in identifying the causative agent clinically or obscuring of the findings due to improper treatment received for other ailments. Thus, clinico-investigative correlation is more important than other clinical findings alone.