Table 4. Microbial colonization of ossicles after HHP treatment (350 MPa, 10 minutes) with and without the addition of antibiotics to the media.

Samplenumber	Species	Semi-quantification after pressure treatment in the absence of antibiotics	Semi-quantification after pressure treatment in the presence of antibiotics
1	No bacterial growth	−	−
2	No bacterial growth	−	−
3	Acinetobacter baumannii	++	−
	Leuconostoc mesenteroides ssp. cremoris	−	+/−
4	Staphylococcus hominis	++	−
	Micrococcus luteus	+/−	−
	Staphylococcus auricularis	+/−	−
	Staphylococcus capitis	+/−	−
	Staphylococcus epidermidis	++	−
5	No bacterial growth	−	−
6	No bacterial growth	−	−

All bacterial strains listed above were detected by conventional culture techniques. A combination of vancomycin (11.1 µg/ml), clindamycin (0.75 µg/ml) and imipenem (3.7 µg/ml) was added to samples 1 to 3. A combination of cefuroxime (11.1 µg/ml), gentamicin (44.4 µg/ml) and imipenem (3.7 µg/ml) was added to samples 4 to 6. See Table 2 for an explanation of the symbols used.