Prevalence of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus among Diabetes Patients with Foot Ulcers and their Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern

摘要

Background and Objectives: MRSA infection is common in diabetes patients with foot ulcers, and is associated with previous antibiotic treatment and prolonged healing. As only a few studies with a small number of samples were done in this regard in India, the present study was undertaken to report the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of MRSA screened from diabetes patients with foot ulcers, attending tertiary care hospitals.Settings and Design: It was a retrospective study carried out at Department of Microbiology, Dr.N.G.P Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India during the period from November 2002 to October 2006.Methods: The present study comprised of 7354 pus specimens of diabetic foot ulcer patients collected from various tertiary care hospitals in and around Coimbatore. All the samples were subjected to gram staining and bacterial culture, and the S. aureus isolates were screened for MRSA prevalence using conventional microbiological methods. Subsequently, the antibiotic sensitivity test was performed for the confirmed MRSA isolates. Results: Out of 2314 (37.82 %) strains of S. aureus isolated form diabetic foot ulcers, 992 (42.86 %) were found to be methicillin resistant. More precisely, all MRSA strains (100 %) were resistant to penicillin, 90.92 % to ampicillin, 82.76 % to clotrimoxazole, 64.11 % to gentamicin, 60.08 % to erythromycin, 51.91 % to omnatax and 50.10 % to cephalexin. Multi drug resistance for about 7 to 10 antibiotics was observed among 55.0 % of the isolates. However, all the strains were sensitive to vancomycin (100 %). Conclusions: The determination of prevalence and antibiotic sensitivity pattern of MRSA screened from diabetic foot ulcer patients will help the clinician for first line treatment in tertiary care hospitals.