Surgical site infections- bacteriological profile and antibiotic susceptibility pattern in a tertiary care hospital

Background: SSIs are responsible for 31% of all HAIs among all hospitalized patients with 3% mortality rate. In spite of improvement in the preventative aspects, surgical site infections still remain a major problem with high morbidity and mortality. Aim and objectives: To isolate and identify the aerobic bacterial pathogensfrom Surgical site infection cases and to determine the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of isolated pathogens. Method: A total of 100 clinical samples of suspected SSIs were studied from the Government Maternity Hospital, Tirupati from June 2018 to May 2019.The pus samples were collected from the infected surgical site after taking precautions to reduce contamination by the normal skin flora. The samples were processed in the Department of Microbiology, by conventional culture methods to identify the pathogen and to determine its antibiotic susceptibility pattern. Result: Out of 100 suspected samples, 58 of them were culture positive for pathogenic organisms. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common isolate followed by Klebsiellapneumoniae. Conclusion: Proper infection control practices, including sterilization and disinfection techniques, surgical attire and drapes, asepsis during surgical technique , microbiological sampling of OT, appropriate pre-operative preparation of the patient and antimicrobial prophylaxis can reduce SSIs.