PUS culture isolates and their antibiotic sensitivity at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Hyderabad Karnataka Region

Introduction: Different studies show that aerobic bacteria are the majority of isolates causing pyogenic infection. Even though the bacterial profile of pus samples in many studies remain the same, the antibiotic resistance pattern of these isolates has shown many variations.(2,3) Hence this study was undertaken to detect the microbiological profile and antibiotic sensitivity of pus samples at a tertiary care hospital in North Karnataka. Materials & Methods: This is a retrospective study in which a total of 293 pus samples were studied. Pus samples were collected with sterile disposable cotton swabs and pus aspirates in syringes and were immediately transported to the microbiology laboratory to be processed. They were inoculated on to Blood agar (BA) and Mac Conkey agar (MA) and plates were incubated at 37°C for 24 to 48 hrs. Identification of isolate from positive cultures was done using standard microbiological techniques. The antibiotic sensitivity testing of all isolates was performed by Kirby Bauer's disc diffusion method on Muller Hinton agar and interpreted as per CLSI guidelines. Results & Discussion: Out of 293 samples, 177 (60.40%) samples were positive for growth. Out of 177 samples, 11(6.21%) samples showed polymicrobial growth. The total number of isolates was 188 isolates and gram negative bacteria were isolated more compared to gram positive pathogens. The most common pathogen isolated was E.coli (36, 19.14%) and the second most common pathogen isolated was Staphylococcus aureus (31, 16.48). The antibiotic sensitivity of the isolated pathogens displayed that majority of them were resistant to ampicillin and all were sensitive to cefoperazone/sulbactam. Conclusion: The most common pathogen isolated was E.coli and the antibiotic sensitivity of the isolated pathogens displayed that majority of them were resistant to ampicillin and all were sensitive to cefoperazone/sulbactam.