epidemiology of burn wound infections in patients hospitalized in burn center of Hamedan, Western Iran

ABSTRACT

A total of 465 burned patients with wound infections who admitted to referral burns center of Hamedan Imam Khomeiny hospital from July 1998 to June 2001 were retrospectively studied. The required data including age, sex, season, causes of burns, burn size of wounds and types of organisms isolated from patients [wounds and blood], was recorded in a questionnaire. The susceptibility of the isolates to eight routine antibiotics was tested by disc diffusion method.The data was analyzed by SPSS and EP16 software package. Out of 465 burn wound infections 73.1% of isolates were Gram-negative bacilli and 26.9% were Gram-positive cocci. Pseudomonas aeruginosa [32.7%], Klebsiella pneumoniae [21.8%] and Staphylococcus aureus [21.2%] were the most common isolates. In 28.7% of patients, blood culture became positive, Klebsiella pneumoniae [30.4%], Pseudomonas aeruginosa [26.9%], were predominant isolates. 57.3% of patients were males and the most frequency of burn patients belonged to age group 0-9 years old [28.6%], most of the burns occurred during summer. Boiled water, fuel oil flames and firewood flames were the commonest causative agent for burns, respectively. The most effective antibiotics against isolates were ciprofloxacin, ceftizoxime, amikacin and gentamicin, while most of isolates showed high resistance to ampicillin, tetracycline and carbenicillin. Present results indicated that Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus were predominant isolates with high resistance to tested antibiotics. These data can be used to evaluate the effects of changes in burn treatment and antimicrobial resistance development in relation to antibiotic usage