St. Louis Children’s Hospital is replacing the swabs used for specimen collection beginning October 2009. The eSwab Collection and Transport System will replace the existing CultureSwabTM EZ swab. During the conversion, the CultureSwabTM EZ Swab will be removed from Pyxis and replaced with the eSwab.
The eSwab is supplied in a peel pouch containing two components -- a screw-cap tube with 1 milliliter (mL) of liquid transport medium and the specimen collection swab. Once the swab sample is collected, it should be placed immediately into the transport tube where it comes into contact with the transport medium. The swab shaft should then be broken at the breakpoint indicated by the red line on the swab shaft and capped tightly. It is important that the operator does not touch the swab below the red line during the collection process or the specimen will become contaminated.
The eSwab has the benefit of a flocked nylon applicator and liquid transport media, which allows for enhanced organism survival as well as the technical benefits of having 1 mL of specimen rather than one swab. This allows for standardization of the innoculum onto different media and the ability to perform an enhanced Gram-stain on the specimen.
The eSwab has not been validated for use in rapid Streptococcal testing and should not be used for this purpose.