ABSTRACT:
Postoperative infections are rare after plastic surgery procedures, but when present, seriously endanger the aesthetic outcome. In this study, a total number of 200 patients (rang from 20-55 years) attended to plastic surgery unit in Azadi teaching hospital in Kirkuk city-Iraq from March 2015 to April 2017. After successful assessment of available pre-operation laboratory tests and preparation of patients to enter the surgical unit. Sample of wound swabs were collected from all patients one week after the operations for bacteriological examination of these swabs for evaluation the antibiotic resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and reporting of the most appropriative antibiotic used for eradication of this causative agent of wound infection. All patients admitted to plastic surgery ward with the raw area and suspected wound infection were enrolled in the study. Wound infection was suspected if the wound was exuding pus or fluid, not healing well or associated with signs and symptoms of inflammation. The samples were then transferred to microbiology laboratory within 1 h of collection using airtight sterile vial. The study showed that 12.5% (25 of 200) of patients enrolled in the study had positive culture of wound swab and 87.5% was negative. The study showed that 20% of patients with positive wound culture were diabetics comparing with 8.57% of patients with negative wound culture. The study showed that 68% of isolated bacteria from wound culture was Pseudomonas aeruginosa followed by 20% S. aureus and the lowest rate of isolated bacteria was E. coli (12%). The study showed that all isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (100%) were resistant to ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and levofloxacin followed by 94.12% of isolates were resistant to gentamicin and tobramycin as well as 88.24% of isolates were resistant to ceftazidime and amoxicillin and 70.59% of isolates were resistant to cefrtriaxone and imipenem. The isolates represented rate of resistance (35.29%) toward amikacin and vancomycin.