MICROBIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF EXPLANT CULTURES FROM INFECTED AND NON-INFECTED SURGICAL PATIENTS AND CORRELATION WITH SURGICAL SITE INFECTION

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Surgical site infections (SSI) are one of the terrifying nosocomial infections that affecting surgical patients and cause a compromise to the quality of health care provided in the hospital. Nearly 5% of people who undergo surgeries might develop SSI, which can have serious consequences and even be deadly. To identify the microbiological prole of explant AIM: culture from suture materials and its correlation in development of SSI in the same patient. Infected and non-infected METHODOLOGY: suture materials that were removed aseptically from the patients were collected and transported to the Microbiology laboratory in sterile BHI broth.With the isolated colonies obtained. Identication was performed by standard microbiological technique and antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done. The culture reports of the swab collected from the pus/ exudate from the surgical site and the suture were compared. This was a prospective cross sectional study for a duration of 6 months. A sum of 190 isolates RESULTS: were obtained from 182 suture samples. 156(86%) suture materials had growth [monomicrobial (70%) polymicrobial growth (16%)] while 26(14%) had no growth. 7 different suture materials were employed in this study. Isolated organisms were gram positive bacilli (n=20), gram positive cocci (n=82), gram negative bacilli (n=87) and fungi (n=1). Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=19) and CONS (n=71) were commonly isolated gram negative organisms. The least common organism grown colonizing the suture material was Klebsiella oxytoca, Citrobacter species, Candida species, Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus species (n=1, 0.5%). Isolates like Escherichia coli (n=5), Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=2) and Acinetobacter species, Staphylococcus aureus (n=1) were found to have multiple drug resistance in the suture thread culture. SSI was seen eight cases (4.3%) and in two of them, the microorganism isolated from the surgical site and suture material was identical. Out of 190 isolates in this study, 96 DISCUSSION isolates (CONS-71, Streptococcus-4, Diphtheriods-2, Aerobic spore bearers-18, Candida-1) were members of normal ora of the skin which shows 50.5% of the suture materials were colonized by normal ora. The current study shows that ability of bacteria to adhere varies between different suture materials. Overall, the adhesion of bacteria to 3-0 Ethilon (10.4%) was found to be lower compared to 3-0 vicryl No 1,3 Prolene, 2-0 Ethilon and Silk. Suture thread must be taken out as soon as possible since opportunistic infections could result from the skin's regular ora