CHARACTERISATION OF BACTERIAL ISOLATES FROM INFECTED BURN WOUNDS OF PATIENTS ADMITTED IN A TERTIARY LEVEL HEALTH CARE FACILITY IN NORTHERN REGION OF INDIA

Infection is an important cause of mortality in burns. Emergence of multi drug resistant pathogens in hospital setting has seriously constrained the available therapeutic options. This necessitates periodic review of the isolation pattern and study of antibiogram of the isolates to strengthen surveillance activities. To determine the bacteriological profile and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of pathogens isolated from infected burn wounds of patients admitted in the burns care unit. The present study was carried out over a duration of six months. Pus samples from infected burn wounds were processed following standard protocols. Antimicrobial susceptibility of the bacterial isolates was performed by Kirby- Bauer disc diffusion method. A total of 408 bacterial pathogens were isolated from 340 samples. The most frequent cause of infection was found to be Pseudomonas aeruginosa (53%), followed by Staphylococcus aureus (9%), Escherichia coli (9%), Enterobacter spp. (8%), Citrobacter spp. (8%), Klebsiella spp. (5%), Acinetobacter spp. (3%) and Proteus spp. (3%). High level of drug resistance (95-100%) was observed for cefepime, ceftazidime, amoxyclav, cotrimoxazole and doxycycline among gram negative pathogens. Meropenem, amikacin and ciprofloxacin were found to be most effective. Twenty one percent of the S. aureus isolates were resistant to methicillin. The high prevalence of antimicrobial resistance emphasizes the need for strengthening the infection control practices