Study of Bacteriological Profile of Post Operative Wound Infection in A Tertiary Care Hospital in North India

Abstract

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are known to be one of the most common worldwide causes of nosocomial infections account for nearly 20% to 25% of all healthcare associated infections. Aims and objectives to isolate the different organisms from post-operative wound infections, to determine the antibiotic sensitivity pattern of these isolates and to determine the rate of SSI. The post-operative specimen received in Department of Microbiology from the various surgical wards of our hospital  and were processed according to standard bacteriological techniques. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion technique. All the staphylococcal isolates were subjected to determination of methicillin resistance by cefoxitin disc diffusion method. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was carried out for all 278 isolates and the results are depicted Staphylococcus aureus strains showed a high degree of resistance for ampicillin (85.7%). Methicillin resistance was seen in 15.7% of all the S.aureus isolates. Gram negative isolates showed even higher rate of resistance and commonly prescribed agents like gentamicin, cotrimoxazole and ciprofloxacin were found resistant for most of the gram negative isolates. Meropenem showed good activity against most of the gram negative isolates, including for P. aeruginosa and Acenetobacter spp, strains which showed high resistance for meropenem also. The present microbiological study has determined the com­monest bacteria responsible for the post-operative wound infectons. There was predominance of commonly isolated bacterial species were S. aureus, E. coli , P. aeruginosa and. To establish the most suitable empirical treatment for each patient, it is very important to know the microbial epidemiology of each institution. Using the results of this study, an initiative for establishing improved hospital antimicrobial policy and antimicrobial prescribing guidelines should be undertaken.