Microbiological survey of orthopedic theatre in nassyriha

الملخص EN

Background : One of the cardinal principles of the hospital care is that it should cause no harm to the patients.

Inspite of brief stay of the patients in the theatre, the environment of operating theatre plays a great role in the onset and spread of infection, so contamination of the operating theatre is a major cause of nosocomial infection.

Bone and joint infection are considered as a major cause of morbidity, emotional stress, and enhanced mortality in addition to significant economic loss and so one could imagine the magnitude of this problem.

Objective : To evaluate the incidence of bacterial contamination of the operating rooms of the orthopedic theatre, in Al Imam Hussein hospital in Nassyriha and to identify the contaminating agents and their distribution within different sites of the operating room.

Methods: Between August 2008 and August 2009, 768 swabs collected from couch, floor, wall of operating room , suction apparatus, antiseptic solution, anesthetic trolleys, gauze and surgical instruments of two operating rooms of orthopedic theatre.

The swabs were cultured directly and standard methods of identification were used .The identification were confirmed by biochemical tests.

Results : The incidence of positive cultures as a total was 21/ 768 (2.73 %) with high incidence were detected in those swabs obtained from couch 6/96 (6.25 %), the floor 5/96 (5.20 %) and wall of operating rooms 5 / 96 (5.20 %).

Lower incidence were recorded from suction apparatus 2/96 (2.08 %), antiseptic solution 2/96 (2.08 %) and anesthetic trolleys 1 / 96 (1.04 %).

Staphylococci were the most common isolate from couch 4 / 6 (66.66 %), while E coli from the floor 4 / 5 (80 %) and the wall of the operating room 3/5 (60%).

Conclusion : High incidence of positive cultures was detected from the couch, the floor, and the wall .The most common contaminant bacteria were Staphylococci and E coli.