A Study of Isolation and Identification of Multidrug Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa from Wound Specimen

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a clinically important pathogenic microbe in hospitalized patients. It is a major cause of mortality and morbidity having a number of mechanisms that make it antibiotic resistant. Considering the dearth of antimicrobial drugs to treat infection with this pathogen, it has become a necessity to open up new arena for treatment with this organism. Recently, there has been an up rise in the number of multidrug resistant pathogenic strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Objective: Isolation and identification of multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa from wound specimens and to evaluate the antibiotic resistant strains of this microbe.

Methodology: One hundred and fifty clinical samples of wound were taken from hospitalized patients at Jinnah hospital Lahore during the period of October 2019 to April 2020. In total, twenty (20) isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were identified using the cultural features, morphological characteristics and various biochemical tests plus the Vitek 2 system. Blue/green, brown /blue and yellow/green pigment production showed the presence and growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Results: Percentage of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in females came out to be 15% as compared to 11.42% in males. This was followed by testing susceptibility of isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to various antimicrobial drugs. Piperacillin/tazobactam and meropenem showed the highest efficacy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Highest resistance was exhibited against trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole which was 75%.

Conclusion: Most isolates showed multidrug resistance to four or more drugs. Development of multidrug resistance has emerged as a global problem with pathogens commonly causing infections becoming increasingly resistant to antimicrobial agents.