Microbial contamination of operating theatres and intensive care units at a surgical specialty hospital in Erbil city

Abstract EN

Background: Microbial contamination of operating theater (OT) and intensive care unit (ICU) is the most frequent cause of nosocomial infections in patients.

Objectives: this study aims to evaluate the prevalence level and variety of microbial contamination in these high‑risk areas in the surgical specialty hospital in Erbil city.

Materials and Methods: Three sampling procedures were employed in this study, which includes swabbing, open plate, and both microbiological and biochemical investigation of water supply in these high‑risk areas.

Standard microbiological techniques were used for microbiological culture and identification of microbial pathogens.

Results: 48.3% yielded positive microbial growth.

The most common isolates were Gram‑positive bacteria (83.1%), of which Staphylococcus aureus accounted for 78.6% of bacterial pathogens isolated, followed by Streptococci (33.3%) and Enterococci (28.6%).

Whereas, lower rate of Gram‑negative bacterial contamination (16.9%) was observed, including Escherichia coli (19%) and each of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus (4.8%).

Air contamination with Aspergillus (19%) and Molds (14.3%) was observed, respectively.

The highest rate of microbial contamination was observed in OT rooms (35.6%) where 50% of environmental hygiene practice was detected using infection control practice audit tool.

In addition, 21.4% of positive cultures were identified in ICU rooms where only 9% of environmental hygiene was practiced.

Conclusions: These findings emphasize the important role of infection control system to prevent the cross‑transmission of nosocomial pathogens to cause contamination and infection in the critically ill patients