Table 1.

Overview of commonly used in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods

Method	Advantages	Disadvantages	Reference
Agar disk diffusion	simplicity of performance, low cost, flexibility, no special equipment required, suitable for lead identification	qualitative assay, poor level of reproducibility, diffusion of antimicrobial substances may be affected, applicable only to fast-growing bacteria	(17, 42, 43, 46, 47)
Agar well diffusion	simplicity of performance, low cost, more sensitive and more convenient than the disc variant for testing of cationic compounds	qualitative assay, poor level of reproducibility	(17, 43, 46,47)
Bioautography	simplicity of performance, little amount of sample required, rapid and inexpensive evaluation, suitable for screening of antimicrobials in mixtures	qualitative assay, difficult to standardise, not suitable for synergy studies, alteration of compounds during the fractional phase	(49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
Agar dilution	quantitative results, a number of bacterial species may be applied to a single dish	laborious and time consuming method, the large amount of reagents and space required	(47, 59, 66, 67, 68)
Broth microdilution	quantitative results, convenience and time/cost effectiveness, capacity to test opaque materials, possible automation, the most consistent results, the killing effect can be assessed	the possibility of errors in solution preparation, relatively high amount of space and reagents required	(17, 47, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 69, 70, 71)
Microfluidic methods	smaller volumes, short run time, higher sensitivity, potential for high throughput	specialised equipment needed, high-cost	(80, 81, 82, 83)