BACTERIAL ISOLATES AND ANTIBIOTIC SENSITIVITY PATTERN FROM LAPAROTOMY WOUNDS IN A NIGERIAN TERTIARY HOSPITAL

Background: The burden of managing surgical site infection (SSI) is enormous and coupled with the changing pattern that has been observed by other researchers with respect to causative agents of SSI, it t herefore becomes imperative to study the bacteriology of the common aetiological agents responsible for post - o perative wound infection in the study centre. Therefore the a im was t o determine the bacterial isolates responsible for causing SSI as well as the antibiotic sensitivity pattern . Methodology : This is a prospective cross - sectional study in patients who had elective and emergency laparotomies. The wounds were inspected on post - operative days 3, 5 and 7 and swabs obtained for microscopy, culture and sensitivity tests in infected cases. T he presence of infection was defined using standardize d criteria stipulat ed by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Results: There were 291 patients who had laparotomy during the study period, 223 met the inclusion criteria; consisting of 157 (70.4%) males and 66 (29.6%) females (M: F = 2.4: 1). Their ages ranged b etween 18 and 80 years with a mean age of 33.89 ± 12.57 years . Incisional SSI was clin ically diagnosed in 85 patients ; 77 (91 %) had positive culture results . Single bacterial isolate was seen in 56 (65.9%) patients . Bacteria i solate s demonstrated good sensitivity to the cephalosporins (> 85%), quinolones (>75%) and gentamicin (100%). The duration of hospital stay for these patients ranged between five to ninety days (Mean = 16.69 ± 8.50 days). Conclusion: Gram negative organisms were the predominant aetiological agents with an attending sensitivity pattern in favour of cephalosporins, quinolones and aminoglycoside. Antibiotics regimen for patients undergoing laparotomies either for prophylaxis or therapeutic purposes should be based o n the antib iogram.