Diseases · Published 2026-07-22 · DOI 10.3390/diseases14070264
Camilla Laureti, Dario Benelli, Federica Zoccali, Gabriele Riccardi, Mattia Umberto Di Michele, Stefano Venarubea, Christian Barbato, Antonio Minni, Carla Petrella
Background: Bacteria colonizing the nasal cavity contribute to mucosal homeostasis, and altered sinonasal bacterial communities have been associated with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). Whether routine, culture-based microbiology can distinguish the cultivable bacterial profile of CRSwNP patients from that of controls remains unclear. Methods: In this single-center observational pilot study, middle-meatus swabs from 30 patients with CRSwNP and 30 controls were cultured on four media, and isolates were identified with the VITEK 2 system. For each species, presence or absence per subject was compared between groups using Fisher’s exact test with Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple comparisons; the number of cultivable species per subject was compared with the Mann–Whitney test. Results: The two groups were comparable in age and sex. Patients yielded more cultivable bacterial species per subject than controls (mean 4.4 vs. 2.9; Mann–Whitney <i>p</i> < 0.001). Several species were numerically more frequent in patients (e.g., <i>Staphylococcus hominis</i>, <i>S. lugdunensis</i>) and others in controls (e.g., <i>S. epidermidis</i>, <i>S. aureus</i>), but no individual species difference remained significant after correction. Conclusions: Using routine culture, CRSwNP was characterized chiefly by a higher number of cultivable bacterial species, whereas individual species differences were not statistically robust. These hypothesis-generating findings warrant confirmation in larger, sequencing-based studies.
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Laureti, C., Benelli, D., Zoccali, F., et al. (2026). Culturable Nasal Bacteria in Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyps: A Single-Center Observational Pilot Study. Diseases. https://doi.org/10.3390/diseases14070264