Nosocomial infection in sulaimani burn hospital, iraq.

Wound infections are common problems in burn units and mostly originate from nosocomial contamination. The development of infections in burn cases is serious because of their effects on the course of the disease and patient outcomes. Many burned patients die as a result of infection during their hospital courses. The rate of infection in burn cases is extremely high in developing countries. For these reasons, we carried out a study of the bacteriological profiles and a comparison of antimicrobial resistance patterns of predominant bacteria, over a period of one year. The study was conducted during a period of 12 months (from May 2008 to April 2009) at the Sulaimani Burn, Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery Hospital, Sulaimani, Iraq. In the present study, a total of 1126 samples of swabs and blood were processed from 760 admitted patients (505 female and 255 male). Bacteria isolates were found in 935 samples (83%) and only 180 wound swabs were sterile (16%); the others became contaminated in the lab and no test was performed (1%). Total bacteria isolated: 1402 organisms (average number of organisms per sample, 1.5). Staphylococcus aureuswas the commonest cause of bacterial burn wound invasion, accounting for 34% of cases, while Pseudomonas aeruginosacaused 18%. The total percentage of multidrug-resistant organisms among all organisms was 51% (715/1402); a percentage of 87.1% was recorded with reference to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureusamong all cases of Staphylococcus aureus(176/202); non-fermenting bacteria among all non-fermenting bacteria were 28.8%.