Culture-Sensitivity Test and Infectious Complication in Perforated Appendicitis

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was aimed to disclose main affected organisms in patients with perforated appendicitis and to analyze correlations between culture-sensitivity test and infectious complication. METHODS: In 26 of 421 patients who had undergone appendectomy due to acute appendicitis from April 1996 to March 1999, we performed culture-sensitivity test. The clinical records of these patients were collected and reviewed about clinicopathological features and results of culture-sensitivity test, retrospectively. Culture material was collected in BBL transport media with cotton swab and cultured by MacConkey agar plate. The method of MIC by VITEK was used for sensitivity test. RESULTS: Cultured organisms were E. coli (18 cases), Pseudomonas (4), Enterobacter (2), Enterococcus (1), and Proteus (1). In sensitivity test, sensitive antibiotics against all cultured organism were amikacin, ceftriaxone, imipenem and cefotetan. But ampicillin, sulfametoxazole/trimethoprim and piperacillin were mostly resistant. Infectious complications occurred in 11 of 26 patients (42.3%) and consisted of 9 wound infection and 2 intraabdominal abscess. Especially, 13 of 18 cases in which E. coli were isolated, were resistant to ampicillin. And they had infectious complications statistically more than those who were not resistant to ampicillin (p=0.036). CONCLUSIONS: E. coli was a main organism in perforated appendicitis. In case of ampicillin-resistant E. coli, the patients were susceptible to infectious complication such as wound infection and intraabdominal abscess.