Bacteriological profile of burn patients at Yekatit 12 Hospital Burn Center, Ethiopia: A longitudinal study

Abstract

Abstract
Introduction: Burn is one of the most common devastating and a very painful form of trauma. Significant thermal injuries induce a state of immune-suppression that predisposes burn patients to infection complications.
Materials and methods: A prospective hospital based study was carried out from December 2010 to February 2011 at Yekatit 12 hospital burn center. Periodic wound swabs and blood samples were collected on 1st, 7th, and 14th days of hospital stay and processed with conventional culture and biochemical tests. Isolates were tested against commonly used antibiotics by Modified Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion methods. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 17.0 for Windows.
Results: From the total of 104 pus cultures, 101 isolates were identified. At the 1st day of pus culture the dominant isolate was Staphylococcus aureus 15(46.9%). On the 7th day of pus culture S. aureus 21 (46.1%) and Pseudomonas spp 20 (44.4%) were isolated. Similarly, at the 14th day the most frequent isolates were S. aureus 12 (50%) and Pseudomonas spp11 (45.8 %). There was no significant change on time regarding blood culture isolates. Of 92 blood cultures, 15 gram positive isolates were identified the majority being coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS), 8 (53.3%). Gram negative isolates, mainly Pseudomonas spp were found resistant for most of antibiotics used in the hospital.
Conclusions: The nature of periodic microbial wound colonization, flora changes and their antibiotic susceptibility pattern should be taken into consideration in empirical antimicrobial treatment of burned patients. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2014;28(1):40-44]