[Epidemiologic studies of the microbial colonization of severely burned patients]

Bacteria isolated between 1/1/1983 and 12/31/1984 from the burns of 122 patients in a burns unit at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum were studied. Grampositive bacteria were predominant in colonizing the burn wounds (62.5% of all strains isolated). In the patients with more than 40% of total body surface area (TBSA) burn, isolation of Staph aureus was most frequent. The exogenous colonization rate with Staph. aureus was 86%. Coagulase negative Staphylococci were identified in 89.6% of all patients (71.4% of the patients with more than 40% TBSA burn). There was a constant decline in detecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa from the second half of 1983. Microbial sensitivity testing was performed in 834 cases. Gramnegative strains of bacteria resistant to Ampicillin, Mezlocillin, Piperacillin and Ticarcillin were found in 10 up to 97% of the tested strains. Acinetobacter calcoaceticus var. antitratus and Enterobacter cloacae usually displayed a wide resistant pattern. Some strains were resistant as to 16 antibiotics. The incidence of multiresistant Staph. aureus was studied. The time course of multiresistance was paralleled by the incidence of a 6-fold resistance to Benzylpenicillin, Oxacillin, Tetracyclin(T), Gentamycin(G), Erythromycin(E), and Sulfadiacin(S). The probability of simultaneous resistance to 2 of the 4 antibiotics (T, G, E, S) ranged between 0.7 and 0.98. 98 out of 336 Staph. aureus isolates showed a simultaneous resistance to T, G, E and S (29%).