[Bacteriological profile and antibiotic resistance of bacteria isolates in a burn department]

Nosocomial infections remain the main cause of morbidity and mortality in burn patients. Ongoing surveillance of infections in burned patients is essential to detect changes in epidemiology and to guide better empirical antibiotherapy and infection control policies. The aim of this study is to analyze the bacterial flora and the antibiotic resistance of isolates in a burn department during a two year period

From 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2006, 1268 strains were isolated from different specimens. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing has been carried out by disk diffusion method as referred to the French Society of Microbiology. All data were stored in a laboratory data base using whonet 5.3 software. Duplicate isolates defined as the same bacterial species for the same patient with the same antimicrobial susceptibility profile were excluded.

The most frequently identified species were Staphylococcus aureus (19.8%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (15.8%), Acinetobacter baumannii (11.8%), Providencia stuarttii. The rate of meticillin resistant S. aureus was 68.1%, all isolates were fully susceptibles to glycopeptide. P. aeruginosa resistance was 35.6% and 35.4% respectively for ceftazidime and imipenem. Concerning A. baumannii, 98.7% of strains were resistant to ceftazidime, 59.5% to imipenem and 87.5% to ciprofloxacin. 77.3% of P. stuarttii isolates were resistant to ceftazidime and were producing extended spectrum, lactamase (ESBL). The frequencies of resistance to ceftazidime, of loxacin and amikacin of K. pneumoniae were respectively 60.9%, 25.4% and 47.1%.

Comparatively to the previous years, S. aureus still be the commonest pathogen in the burn department. The incidence of antimicrobial resistance has decreased during 2006 after a peak of multiresistance during 2005. Our results should be helpful in providing useful information regarding antimicrobial resistance among the burn isolates and this will help in formulation of effective guideline for therapy.