ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this work is to describe the microbiology of diabetic foot infections (DFIs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors included all samples of infected diabetic foot ulcers between January 2009 and June 2014 at the Mohammed Vth Military Teaching Hospital of Rabat, Morocco. RESULTS: The researchers collected 199 samples corresponding to 157 patients. The mean age of the patients was 59 years ± 12 years. Of the collected samples, deep samples represented 41% and swab samples 59%. Direct examination indicated anaerobic infection in 32% of the cases. There were 307 bacteria isolates from both deep and swab samples. There was no statistically significant association between the sampling method and isolate species (P = 0.237). Enterobacteriaceae, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus sp, nonfermenting gram-negative bacilli (NFGNB), and Enterococcus sp represented 31.8%, 12.6 %, 12.3%, 11.7%, and 8.7% of the isolates, respectively. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus represented 4.7% of S. aureus isolates. Enterobacteriaceae and NFGNB-producing extended spectrum ß-lactamases represented 14.1% and 5.1%, respectively, with isolates producing carabapenemase representing 3.8% and 38.5%. Piperacillin-tazobactam, imipenem, and ciprofloxacin resistance concerned 7.5%, 4.7%, and 25.5%, respectively, of isolated Enterobacteriaceae, and 35.9%, 30.7%, and 35.9% of NFGNB. Low susceptibility to ß-lactams was found in 4.9% of Streptococcus sp isolates and 4.9% of Streptococcus sp isolates were resistant to moxifloxacin. CONCLUSION: Gram-negative bacilli are responsible for 43% of DFIs, and multidrug-resistant GNB is a challenging issue in DFI management. The sampling method doesn't seem to impact the bacteriological profile; however, this finding must be confirmed with further study.