Antibiotic susceptibility patterns of bacteria isolates in post-operative wound infections among patients attending Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, Kenya

Abstract Background Surgical site infections accounts for high mortality rates, morbidity and elevated costs of treatment for surgical patients. In recent years, surgical site infections attributed to antibiotic resistant bacteria has been on the rise globally. To effectively formulate a comprehensive treatment protocol for surgical site infection, there is need for knowing the likely causative agents and their antibiograms. In this regard, this study sought to determine the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of bacteria isolates from post-operative wound infections among patients attending Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital.Methods A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out between October 2018 and March 2019. The study included patients of all age group with surgical site infections following general, obstetrics and gynecological surgeries. Pus swabs were aseptically obtained from 58 consented patients with clinical evidence of surgical site infections. Gram stain, culture, biochemical tests and antibiotic susceptibility tests were done for each pus swab. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was done using Kirby bauer disc diffusion method. Data was analysed using a statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 20.Results An isolation rate of 94.8% was observed. Staphylococcus aureus 28.2% was the preponderant isolate followed by Escherichia coli 15.4% with Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus accounting for 65.4% (n=17) of the total Staphylococcus species . Chloramphenicol was the most sensitive drug to all the bacteria isolates. Ampicillin and Amoxycillin recorded resistance rates >90% against positive and gram negative bacteria respectively. Klebsiella pneumoniae 81.3% and E.coli 74% were the most resistant bacteria.Conclusion Majority of the drugs were resistant to gram negative rods, therefore there is need for continuous monitoring to determine the susceptibility patterns of the most common surgical site infections bacteria isolates which are found in the hospitals.