Microbiological Screening and Antimicrobial Sensitivity Profiling of Wound Infections in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Bangladesh

Abstract

Wound infection is a major problem in hospitals in developing countries. Wound infection causes morbidity and prolonged hospital stay thus this prospective study was conducted for a period of seven months (January 2019 to July 2019). A total of 217 specimens (wound swabs and pus exudates) from wound infected patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Bangladesh. A retrospective study of the microbiological evaluation was done by cultural growth as well as Gram staining and biochemical examination to identify the bacterial isolates. Finally, the antimicrobial vulnerability testing was performed by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion conventional method. A total of 295 samples were tested. Out of which 217 (73.5%) were found culture positive. E. coli was the most predominant gram-negative isolates whereas Staphylococcus aureus and Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus were the most commonly isolated gram-positive organisms. Antimicrobial sensitivity profile of bacterial isolates revealed imipenem, meropenem, amikacin, and nitrofurantoin to be the most effective antimicrobials against gram-negative isolates, whereas imipenem, meropenem, amikacin, nitrofurantoin, amoxiclav, and gentamicin were the most effective drugs against gram-positive isolates. The result of this examination contributes to the identification of basic causative microbes involved in wound infection and findings of antibiotic susceptibility patterns can be helpful for primary care physicians to optimize the treatment modalities, articulate policies for empiric antimicrobial therapy, and to minimize the rate of infection among wound infected patients.