الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Healthcare associated-infections (HAIs) represent a clinical and economic problem and are among the major causes increased morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients. HAIs remain a serious problem in patients undergoing open- heart surgeries. The aim of this study is to investigate and characterize microbiologically the most prevalent perioperative infections among patients undergoing open heart surgeries at Aswan Heart Centre (Egypt) and to phenotypically and genetically characterize the microbiological causative agents. The total number of patients included in the study was 255 patients during the period 14 April through 30thAugust 2013 of whom eight died before the study was completed. Forty patients were found to be infected and five were colonized. Phenotypic identification was held by the API 20E system and through antibiotic sensitivity testing. The strains were further characterized genotypically using pulsed field gel electrophoresis. The most prevalent infectious agent was found to be Serratia marcescens (42%) followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (26%). The antimicrobial susceptibility profiles for S. marcescens showed that 63% of the isolates were having identical susceptibility profile and were extended spectrum beta-lactamases positive. PFGE of S. marcescens isolates showed that nineteen belonged to six patterns, while ten isolates belonged to a single pattern. For K. pneumoniae isolates, there weren{u2019}t any clear significant epidemiological relatedness except for two isolates that showed identical susceptibility profile and belonged to one pattern in PFGE. The results of the current investigation could reflect that the same clone of S. marcescens was reflected in > 50 % of the isolates. In addition, we found a degree of epidemiological relatedness within another group of isolates. Continuous implementation of standardized protocols of DNA-based typing methods in epidemiological investigations of HAIs may be too expensive and impractical but may result in better control of health acquired infections and reduce healthcare related risks and costs |