Burn unit: Colonization of burn wounds and local environment

Abstract

BACKGROUND We present the results of a comparative prospective study of the resistance profile of strains isolated from pathological material of patients hospitalized in the burn unit of the military hospital in Rabat and from their environment over a period of one and a half years (July 2009-February 2011). METHODS The study concerned 125 pathological products from patients (40 men, 20 women; mean age 38±14.8 years; range 2 to 80 years) hospitalized with burns. This allowed the isolation of 86 non-redundant bacterial strains during the first period and 50 during the second. RESULTS The dominant species were Acinetobacter baumannii (15.6%), followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (13.8%) and Staphylococcus aureus (11%). During the second period, we noted the abundance of A. baumannii (15.5%), followed by P. aeruginosa (11.3%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (8.5%). Of the 104 environmental samples of burn patients, 139 microorganisms were isolated. Coagulase- negative staphylococcus was the most abundant strain in the two study periods (69.2% and 64.6%). CONCLUSION All species showed an almost identical sensitivity to the various antibiotics tested.