Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences

Published by : PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL PUBLICATIONS

ISSN 1681-715X

HOME   |   SEARCH   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES

-

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

-

Volume 23

October - December 2007 (Part-I)

Number  5


 

Full Text
PDF of this Article

Bacteriologic study of
diabetic foot ulcer

Seyed Mohammad Alavi1, Azar D. Khosravi2, Abdulah Sarami3,
Ahmad Dashtebozorg4, Effat Abasi Montazeri5

ABSTRACT

Objective: To study the relative frequency of bacterial isolates cultured from diabetic foot infections and assess their in vitro susceptibility to the commonly used antibacterial agents.

Methodology: In total 32 hospitalized diabetic patients with foot infections were investigated. Deep tissue biopsies were inoculated into freshly prepared Thioglycollate broth medium. Bacterial agents were identified by conventional bacteriologic methods. Sensitivity tests were performed according to standard disc diffusion method of Kirby & Bauer.

Results: Clinical grading and bacteriological study of 32 patients with diabetic foot lesions revealed polymicrobial etiology in 16 (50%) and single etiology in 10 (31.2%) and six negative cultures. Aerobic Gram-positive bacteria accounted for 42.9%. Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequent microorganism yielded (26.2%), and Staphylococcus epidermidis was regularly associated with the lesions (14.3%). Gram-negative rods accounted for 54.8%. Escherichia coli was the most predominant gram negative organism (23.8%). No anaerobes were isolated from the ulcers. All the microorganisms isolated showed high resistance to used antibiotics, amongst them, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were the most resistant bacteria in present study.

Conclusion: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Proteus vulgaris were the most common causes of diabetic foot infections in present study. And the rate of antibiotic resistance was 65% among the isolates. Due to polymicrobial infection and antibiotic resistance, surgical intervention must be concerned.

KEY WORDS: Diabetic foot, Bacteriology, Antibiotic resistance, Infection.

Pak J Med Sci    October - December 2007 (Part-I)    Vol. 23 No. 5    681-684


 1. Seyed Mohammad Alavi MD,
2. Azar D. Khosravi, Ph.D,
3. Abdulah Sarami MD,
4. Effat Abasi Montazeri MSc.
5. Ahmad Dashtebozorg MD,
1,3, 5: Razi Hospital, Iran.
2,4: Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine,
Ahwaz Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences,
Ahwaz – Iran.
1,2: Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center,
Ahwaz Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences,
Ahwaz – Iran.

Correspondence

Dr. Azar D. Khosravi,
E-mail: khosraviaz@yahoo.com 

* Received for Publication: April 9, 2007
* Revision Received: July 14, 2007
* Revision Accepted: July 16, 2007



HOME   |   SEARCH   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES

Professional Medical Publications
Room No. 522, 5th Floor, Panorama Centre
Building No. 2, P.O. Box 8766, Saddar, Karachi - Pakistan.
Phones : 5688791, 5689285 Fax : 5689860
pjms@pjms.com.pk