Abstract

Diabetic patients are at increased risk of wound infection after minor or major surgery due to the role diabetes play in metabolic function by impairing inflammatory process leading to increased risk of infection and impaired wound healing. This study investigated the phenotypic profile and antibiogram of pathogens isolated from diabetic patients attending National Hospital in Abuja, Nigeria After approval from the Ethics and Research committee of National Hospital, Abuja. Wound swab sticks were carefully collected from consented 40 post-operative diabetic subjects and 40 post-operative non-diabetic subjects. These samples were analyzed using standard microbiological techniques for isolation, identification and the antibiograms of pathogens. Distribution of bacterial isolate in this study revealed that Staphylococcus spp (both coagulase positive and coagulase negative) are the most common pathogen from post-operative septic diabetic patients, 15 (37.5%); followed by Escherichia coli, 10 (25.0 %); Klebsialla spp and Pseudomonas aeruginosa has 6 (15.0%) each. However, Staphylococcus spp in septic non-diabetic wounds was 35.0%, followed by Escherichia coli and Proteus spp (27.5%) while Klebsiella spp, Streptococcus spp and Pseudomonas aeruginosa comprised of 16.3%, 3.7% and 2.5% respectively. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern of respective isolates showed Ceftriazone, Levofloxacin, Ofloxacin as more susceptible compared to Amoxicillin-Clavulanate and gentamycin. The pattern also suggests multidrug resistance in Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas spp compared with no antibiotic resistance in isolates such as Proteus spp, Klebsiella spp and coagulase negative Staphylococcus (CoNS).
Conclusion: Findings from this study indicated that unprecedented bacterial infection is mostly supported by diabetes which may lead to delayed wound healing. It further revealed that more antibiotics resistance in septic diabetic subject than septic non-diabetics.

Keywords: Diabetic wound; Bacterial pathogen; Antibiotic resistance; Nigeria