Bacterial Contamination of Surgical Site Wounds Among Post-Operative Patients and Theatre Surfaces at Hoima Regional Referral Hospital

Bacterial contamination of Surgical sites could lead to Surgical Site infections (SSI) which may prolong hospital stay, increased treatment costs and increased mortality. This study determined the prevalence of bacterial contamination of surgical sites among post-operative wounds and theatre surfaces together with their resistance to commonly prescribed antibiotics. A cross-sectional study design was used where a total of 290 and 74 swabs were collected from patients and theatre surfaces respectively. Swabs were cultured on duplicate plates of Blood Agar, Chocolate Agar and MacConkey Agar. Gram-staining and Biochemical tests were performed to identify the isolates. Resistance to commonly prescribed antibiotics was determined using the Kirby Bauer (KB) method. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23, and descriptive statistics, Chi square and student T- tests were used to describe the results. The prevalence of bacterial contamination in wounds was 30.7% and was significantly higher in women of child bearing age ({chi}2= 10.79, df=1, P=0.0010). Microbial growth increased with an increase in duration of antibiotic therapy ({chi}2=12.73, df=2, P=0.007). E. coli was responsible for the highest cases of wound contamination (34.9%). All microorganisms isolated from post-operative wounds showed considerable resistance to antimicrobials. All isolates from wounds were resitant to Trimethoprin Sulfamexathone and 76.9% showed resistance to Ciprofloxacin. Other than E.coli and Acinetobacter, the rest of the isolates were susceptible to imipinem. Fourty nine gram positive isolates were grown from theatre surfaces and a significant majority (86%) were from air. There was high resistance to Erythromycin in Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus (CNS) isolates (56.0%). Overall, our study demonstrated that wound contamination at the Hoima Regional Referral Hospital is high but not associated with theatre surface contamination.