Bacterial diversity and antimicrobial resistance in Surgical site infections: A challenge to be tackled at the earliest!

SSI's are ranked among the most common health care associated infections. They cause significant morbidity, increased cost of care and prolonged hospital stay. A spectrum of microorganisms with varied antimicrobial susceptibility patterns have been identified as causative agents of SSI's, which vary with time, hospital location and with the type of surgical procedure performed. We conducted this study with an objective to assess the burden of SSI, its causative aerobic bacteria and their in vitro antibiotic susceptibility patterns.

All samples from post operative surgical site were processed and identified by gram staining, colonial morphology and standard biochemical tests. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed as per CLSI guidelines.

A total of 110 samples were processed out of which 40 (36.36%) were positive for SSI's. Male to female ratio was 1.53: 1. Most common age group was 20–40 years(41.86%). E.coli(44.19%) was the predominant organism isolated, followed by S.aureus(13.95%). Most of the gram negative isolates were found to be sensitive to Polymyxin B (86.66%), Imipenem (80%), and Amikacin (73.33%). Gram positive isolates showed 100% sensitivity to Vancomycin and Linezolid.

Our study highlights an increasing incidence of SSI's, which is an alarming situation to clinical microbiologists and surgeons of our country. Hence good empirical pre operative antibiotic therapy, with post operative prophylaxis will help in the long run to decrease the incidence of SSI and improve the cost of living.