Bacteriological Profile of Surgical Site Wound Infection following Caesarean Section

Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) is a common complication following cesarean section (C-section) and remarkably responsible for maternal morbidity, mortality, dissatisfaction of patients, longer hospital stays as well as excessive treatment costs.

Objective: To identify the bacteriological profile of surgical site wound infection following caesarean section.

Method: This cross-sectional comparative study was carried out in the outdoor Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology in the Institute of Child and Mother Health, Dhaka. A total of 88 post cesarean patients who visited for post-natal checkup. Basic demographic data and brief history was collected at first. Swabs were collected from surgical site if any wound was observed. Data were analyzed using SPSS software.

Result: The mean age of the study subjects was 27.89±7.53 years, with the majority of study subjects being between 21 and 30. The maximum study subjects (92.0%) were housewives, 14 (15.9%) had diabetes mellitus and 13 (14.8%) had hypertension. Among them 23.9 % had post cesarean cases. Growth was found in 35.2% cases. Among them 23.9% had S. aureus, 4.5% had E. coli, 5.7% had Pseudomonas spp. and 1.1% had Enterobacter spp. Growth was found significantly higher in emergency CS group (56.8%) in comparison to elective CS group (13.6%).

Conclusion: Growth was found 35.2% of the patients following caesarean section. Growth was significantly higher in emergency CS than that of elective CS. Most prevalent organism was S. aureus (23.9%) followed by Pseudomonas spp. (5.7%), E. coli (4.5%) and Enterobacter spp (1.1%).