MICROBACTERIAL PROFILE OF SURGICAL SITE INFECTION AND THEIR PATTERN OF SENSITIVITY IN TERTIARY HOSPITAL IN NORTH CENTRAL HOSPITAL, NIGERIA.

Background: Surgical site infections (SSI) remain a problem in surgical practice despite the improvement in advanced technology and the use of antibiotics. Also, there is also a growing menace of antibiotic resistance which poses a great challenge in treating SSI. The study aimed to find out the most common bacterial pathogens responsible for surgical site infection and their antibiotic sensitivity profile.

Material and methods: It was a descriptive study carried out in Federal Medical Centre, Bida. 500 surgical procedures were carried out and samples were obtained from 73 patients that showed clinical evidence of SSI for culture and susceptibility test. Samples were collected from each patient using a swab stick. Bacteriological culture examination and identification were done following standard microbiological techniques. Susceptibility testing was performed by Kirby-Bauer technique according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards institute 26th edition. Data were analysed using SPSS 26.

Results: Out of the 73 samples taken, 83 isolates were obtained while five samples yielded no growth. Gram-negative bacteria (GNB) were predominant in 73(88.1%) with the dominant being E. Coli species (38.6%). From the strains that were isolated, there were 9(10.8%) Staph aureus was the only Gram-positive organism. Concerning antibiotic susceptibility, the results demonstrated remarkably high multidrug resistance. However, the meropenems and amikacin demonstrated good activities against all gram-negative isolates. The resistance pattern of enterobacteriaceae to tested antibiotics were to ciprofloxacin (90.2%) levofloxacin (82.2%) augmentin (88.5%) ceftriaxone (85.2%) ceftazidime (80.3%), gentamicin (80.3%) meropenems (14.8%) amikacin (16.4%.).

Conclusion: The study demonstrated a high alarming rate of multidrug resistance following SSI and this should call for concerns and surveillance among surgeons.