A Survey on Burn Infection / 第三军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

A total of 226 strains of organisms was isolated from the cultures of the subeschar unburnt tissues of the burn patients admitted to this institute in the period from April 1980 to April 1982. Among the organisms, gram-negative bacilli exceeded gram-positive cocci in number. The frequently seen gram-negative bacilli, in the order of frequency, were Pseudomonas, Serratia, Klebsialla, and E. coli. And the frequently seen gram-positive cocci were Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus albus, Streptococcus fecalis, and Streptococcus hemolyticus.The quantitative culture of the biopsy specimen showed its value in our clinical application. In cases of multiple infections, after the identification and precise count of the bacterial colonies on the cultures were done, the percentage of the various organisms could be obtained and the main pathogen was revealed.It was pointed out that ordinary culture media were only favorable for rapid growth of bacteria but the existence of fungi was usually masked. A. modified method of fungus culture, tissue thread culture, was used for the early diagnosis of fungus infection. 38 specimens were studied simultaneously with three methods. The positive rate for fungus was 8% in ordinary cultures, 26% in his-tologic examinations, and 61% in tissue thread cultures.Anaerobic culture was performed for 102 swab specimens from the burn wounds and a positive rate of 14.7% was obtained. In addition, anaerobic blood culture was performed in 10 cases of severe burns with 2 positive cultures. It is suggested that anaerobic infections should not be neglected in burns.