AbstractIntroduction: About 75% of the mortality associated with burn injuries is related to sepsis, especially in developing countries. Since it is desirable to carry out periodic reviews of bacterial flora of burn wounds and environmental surveillance to look for possible sources of wound contamination, so that preventive strategies could be modified as necessary; present study has been carried out. Aims & Objectives: To identify the pathogens causing hospital acquired infections in burn units and determines their antimicrobial resistance pattern. Also to assess & correlate the environmental conditions and risk factors associated with burn infections. Setting and Design: Observational study done in rural tertiary care centre for duration of two years. Materials & Methods: Patients with Total burn surface area (TBSA)>10% were enrolled in study excluding children less than 12 years of age. From patient; surface wound swab, normal skin swab, nasal swab and throat swab were collected on first, third, seventh, tenth, and fourteenth day post admission. Environmental sampling was done every three months. Result: Out of 112 patients included in study, 62 were infected with burn wound infections. Colonization rates were 62% on third day, 77% on 14th day. Rates of invasive infections were 4% on third day increasing to 61% on 14th day. Overall, Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the predominant isolate (28%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (23%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (11%), Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus (CONS) (9%) & Acinetobacter species (9%). High level of environmental contamination was seen with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Conclusion: The most common route of infection was cross-infection.
Keywords: Burn Wound Infections; Colonisation; Environmental Surveillance; Health Care Workers.