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Background and objectives: Bacterial contamination of wounds is a serious problem, particularly in burn patients. Gram-positive bacteria are the predominant cause of infection in newly hospitalized burn cases. This study aimed to survey the prevalence and antibiotic resistance pattern of gram-positive bacterial isolates among burn patients in Rasht, North of Iran.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on burn patients with a positive culture for gram-positive isolates who were hospitalized in the Velayat Burn Center in Rasht, North of Iran, during 2017-2020. The isolates were identified using standard microbiological methods. Moreover, the antibiotic resistance pattern was determined by the disk diffusion method.
Results: During the study period, 671 bacterial cultures were obtained, of which a total of 16 gram-positive isolates were taken from the patients. The frequency of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus spp. was 68.7%, 18.8%, and 12.5%, respectively. In addition, the highest rate of resistance in CoNS isolates was against trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. The highest rate of resistant among S. aureus isolates was recorded against penicillin. Moreover, Enterococcus faecalis isolates showed a high level of resistance to ampicillin, erythromycin, tetracycline, gentamicin, and ciprofloxacin. All isolates were susceptible to teicoplanin. Moreover, the frequency of methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates was 66.7%.
Conclusion: Given the increasing prevalence of drug-resistant strains, especially in susceptible burn patients, it is imperative to analyze the bacterial etiology of nosocomial infections periodically and epidemiologically.