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Thioglycollate Medium, Enriched with Vitamin K₁ and Hemin is a general-purpose medium used in qualitative procedures for the cultivation of fastidious as well as nonfastidious microorganisms, including aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, from a variety of clinical and nonclinical materials.

Enriched Thioglycollate Medium is BBL™ Thioglycollate Medium without Indicator-135C supplemented with vitamin K₁ and hemin.^1-3 The enriched broth medium is recommended for use in the isolation and cultivation of fastidious or slow growing, obligately anaerobic microorganisms present in clinical materials.^4,5 It is also recommended for the isolation and cultivation of a wide variety of aerobic and facultatively anaerobic microorganisms. The medium is prepared with an anaerobic head space and is provided in screw-capped tubes in accordance with CDC recommendations.⁴ Vitamin K₁ and hemin have been shown to be required by certain anaerobes for growth.^6,7

The isolation of microorganisms from clinical materials frequently requires the use of enriched broth media in addition to the selective, differential and nonselective plated media normally used for primary isolation. The use of liquid "back up" media reduces the possibility of completely missing an etiological agent that is present in low numbers, slow growing on plated media, susceptible to selective agents, or sensitive to unfavorable incubation conditions; i.e., insufficient anaerobiosis for optimal growth of obligate anaerobes.

See "Quality Control Procedures."

Quality Control requirements must be performed in accordance with applicable local, state and/or federal regulations or accreditation requirements and your laboratory's standard Quality Control procedures. It is recommended that the user refer to pertinent CLSI (formerly NCCLS) guidance and CLIA regulations for appropriate Quality Control practices.

A single electrode of sufficiently small size to fit into the tubes should be used to determine the pH potentiometrically of tubed media. The tip of the electrode should be placed below the surface of broth media.

For in vitro Diagnostic Use.

Caution should be exercised in reporting direct Gram stain and/or other direct microbiological stain results on tissue specimens processed with this medium due to the possible presence of nonviable organisms in the culture medium.

Tubes with tight caps should be opened carefully to avoid injury due to breakage of glass.

Pathogenic microorganisms, including hepatitis viruses and Human Immunodeficiency Virus, may be present in clinical specimens. "Standard Precautions"^9-12 and institutional guidelines should be followed in handling all items contaminated with blood and other body fluids. After use, prepared tubes, specimen containers and other contaminated materials must be sterilized by autoclaving before discarding.