DARU Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences124MICROBIAL CONTAMINATION OF PRESERVED OPHTHALMIC DROPS IN OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENTS: POSSIBILITY OF AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF USE151155MOHAMMAD REZA FAZELIHOUSHANG BEHESHT NEJADHADI MEHRGANLEILA ELAHIAN20151006Ocular infections may arise from topical ophthalmic medications. A standard imposed by the British Pharmaceutical Codex implies that eye drops should be discarded after 1-day use when these remedies are used in outpatient departments. In this study the bioburden rates arising from 2, 4 and 7 days’ use were evaluated and compared with those of 1 day’s use to determine whether it is possible to extend the period of use of preserved eye drops in outpatient departments. A total of 200 eye drops were taken from outpatient departments of Farabi Eye Hospital after 1, 2, 4 and 7 days’ use and the contamination rates of the residual contents, caps and droppers were determined using conventional techniques. High biobudren rates were obtained in all the samples tested. Although the overall recorded incidences of microbial contamination in the 2 and 4-day drops were not considerably different from those of first day (P>0.01) but those of 7 days’ use were significant (Phttps://daru.tums.ac.ir/index.php/daru/article/view/219https://daru.tums.ac.ir/index.php/daru/article/download/219/219