Prevalence and Antibiotic Susceptibility Pattern of Pathogens Isolated from Post-Operative Wounds of Diabetes Mellitus Patients in Uyo, Nigeria

This study was aimed at investigating the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility of isolates from wounds of diabetic and non diabetic patients in University of Uyo metropolis. Eighty five wound swab samples were collected from the culture bench of University of Uyo Health Center and three neighboring hospitals. The isolates were characterized and identified using standard microbiological methods. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern was determined using the disc diffusion method. Oral interview was conducted on patients to ascertain their medical history and samples taken to conduct HbA1c test at the time of wound swab collection. Out of the samples collected, 62.5% were infected with bacteria (80% Gram negative and 20% Gram positive) featuring frequency of occurrence percent of Staphylococcus aureus (28.8%), Pseudomonas spp. (33.1%), Escherichia coli (25.0%), Proteus spp. (8.3%) and Klebsiella spp. (2.6%). There was significant difference in the antibiotic sensitivity of S. aureus to ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin comparing the two groups. Similarly, there was significantly lower sensitivity to ofloxacin shown by E. coli and Klebsiella spp. in the DM group compared with the control. There were no significant differences in the antibiotic sensitivities of the isolated organisms for the cephalosporin and aminoglycoside antibiotics. The study showed that isolates from SWI demonstrated significant differences in susceptibility to fluoroquinolones but no differences to the aminoglycoside and cephalosporin antibiotics based on the glycaemic levels.