Culture-Positivity and Sensitivity in Post-Surgical Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Introduction: Hospital-Acquired Infection (HAI) is a serious health hazard across the world, being a major contributor to the rate of morbidity and mortality. Inadequate evidence is available on the magnitude of hospital-acquired infections in tertiary care hospitals of Pakistan, thus resulting in a poor focus on this aspect of quality of care. Aims & Objectives: The study aims to measure the frequency of post-op culture-positivity, sensitivity, and its associated attributes in a tertiary care hospital in Lahore, Pakistan. Place and duration of study: Tertiary care teaching hospital in Lahore, Punjab from April to July, 2016. Material & Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a public sector, tertiary care, teaching hospital in Lahore using secondary data. All discharged patients’ files from surgical and allied specialties, operated from 1st Oct, 2015 to 31st Dec 2015, having ages between 18 to 60 years and of both gender, were included consecutively in the study. Data was collected on a structured, self-constructed form and analyzed through SPSS version 21. Results: Out of the total 420 patient files, 47 (11.2%) had culture positive reports, out of which 74.5% had UTIs, 17% tissue/wound infection, 4.3% fluid infections and 4.3% had other site infections. 46% of the females and 32% of the males were found to be culture positive out of the suspects of HAI. The highest infection rate was found among patients of urology (71%), while there was no positive culture found for neurosurgery patients. The most frequently found organisms in cultures were Coliform species (38%), Pseudomonas Aeruginosa (13%), followed by Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus Aureus and Candida Albican. Mixed growth was found in 26% of the cultures. The antibiotic sensitivity of the cultures was to Amikacin (38.3%), Imipenem (29.8%), Tazocin (21.3%) and Gentamycin (14.9%). The antibiotic resistance among the cultures was to; Ciproxin (44.7%), Amoxicillin (34.0%), Cefotaxime (31.9%) and Ampicillin (23.4%). Conclusion: The infection rate among suspects of HAI, was found to be high in this study which calls for an urgent need of robust infection control policy and strategies.