Authors : Mallikarjun Koppad, Vedavati B.I, Halesh LH, Vijay A
DOI : 10.18231/j.ijmr.2019.021
Volume : 6
Issue : 2
Year : 2019
Page No : 101-105
Introduction: Skin grafting is done to restore the skin integrity for large surface wounds. Grafts are susceptible to a variety of infections leading to graft failure. The present study was undertaken to analyse the causative agents of skin graft infection and to determine the antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates.
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on a 60 patients who were undergoing skin grafting at a plastic surgery unit in a tertiary health care centre for 9 months duration. A total of 180 swabs were collected, 3 from each patient. Organisms were identified by standard conventional methods. The antibiotic sensitivity testing of the isolates was done by Kirby Bauer’s Disk Diffusion method according to CLSI guidelines.
Results: All the samples collected at the time of admission showed the growth. Pseudomonas species (50%) followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis (16.7%), Staphylococcus aureus (16.7%) are the predominate organisms isolated. Most of the samples collected preoperatively showed no growth (about 73.3%), the rest showed growth of Staphylococcus aureus (10%) followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis (6.7%) and others. About 16.7% samples collected postoperatively showed no growth and remaining samples showed predominately growth of Pseudomonas spp. (40%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (23.3%) and others.
Conclusion: The study revealed that most of the samples showed bacterial growth which can potentially result in graft rejection. Most of these bacteria were resistant to many antibiotics. So, it is crucial to determine causative bacteria and their antibiotic sensitivity profiles, which helps in preventing over all infection related graft rejection.
Keywords: Antibiotic sensitivity, Graft rejection, Pseudomonas spp, Skin grafting, Staphylococcus aureus.