Nosocomial Wound Infection amongst Post Operative Patients and Their Antibiograms at Tertiary Care Hospital in India

Nosocomial infection constitutes a major public health problem worldwide. Increasing antibiotic resistance of pathogens associated with nosocomial infections also becomes a major therapeutic challenge for physicians. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify post operative bacterial infections in the patients developing surgical site infections at a tertiary University hospital in North India during July 2013 to Dec 2013. Methods: One hundred and ninety six swabs/pus specimens from various types of surgical sites suspected to be infected on clinical grounds were processed, by standard methods and antibiotic susceptibility testing of all the isolates was done by using Kirby Baur disc diffusion technique. Results: Of the one hundred and fifty-eight organisms isolated, the most common was Staphylococcus aureus (27.8 %), followed by Escherchia coli (24.05 %), Klebsiella pneumoniae (13.29 %), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6.32%), Klebsiella oxytoca (5%), Enterococcus (5.6%) and other miscellaneous gram negative rods (9.4%) and Streptococcus pyogenes (1.30%). About 50% of the Staphylococcus aureus isolates were found to be methicillin resistant. In case of Escherichia coli, more than one-third of the isolates were found to be ESBL producers. The resistance to third generation cephalosporins and the quinolone ciprofloxacin was also quite high. Other isolates also showed a very high level of antibiotic resistance. Conclusion: In addition to the economic burden for antibiotic treatment, such infections for multi-resistant organisms are a serious threat to our surgical patients. To prevent these happenings, there is ar urgent need to adopt basic principles of asepsis and sterilization and to make judicious use of prophylactic and therapeutic antibiotics and determine current antimicrobial resistance to commonly prescribed drugs.