Nasal Colonization of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and its Plausibleassociation with Infected Foot Ulcers in Diabetic Patients Padmavathy Kesavaram1,*, Krishnan Raja Shanmuga2, Padma Krishnan3, Sathyapriya Bhaskaran4 1Professor, Department of Microbiology, Research Laboratory for Oral & Systemic Health, Sree Balaji Dental College & Hospital, Bharath Institute of Higher Education & Research, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India 2Consultant Plastic Surgeon, Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India 3Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Dr. ALM Post Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Madras, Taramani campus, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India 4Professor, Department of Anatomy, Sree Balaji Dental College & Hospital, Bharath Institute of Higher Education & Research, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India *Corresponding Author: Kesavaram Padmavathy, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Research Laboratory for Oral and Systemic Health, Sree Balaji Dental College and Hospital, Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: padmabakianath@gmail.com
Online published on 4 April, 2020. Abstract Diabetic Foot ulceration is one of the major devastating complication of diabetes. Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) infected with multidrug resistant bacterial strains is often associated with prolonged hospital stay, increased treatment cost, significant morbidity and mortality. DFU infected with Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) if untreated may lead to amputation. Materials & Method Type 2 diabetic Subjects (Mean age 56 years)(n=27) with infected foot ulcers were included in his study. After wound debridement, samples were taken from the base of the ulcer using sterile cotton swabs and nasal swabs were also collected from the study subjects and were processed as per standard Microbiological methods. Results The overall isolation rate of S. aureus in DFU was 18.5%. Among the S. aureus isolates screened for MRSA, all the isolates from the DFU ulcers (n=4) and those isolated from the nares (n=3) of the diabetic subjects were found to be MRSA. Of note, 3 of the study subjects in whom MRSA was isolated from the DFU samples were found to harbour MRSA in their nares. Nevertheless, allthe isolateswere susceptible to linezolid, netillin, gentamicin and amikacin. No significant statistical difference was observed in the antimicrobial resistance percentage among the DFU and nasal isolates. Conclusion Our study results imply that, screening for MRSA colonisation would better predict a patient's probability of MRSA infection and guide the clinicians in antimicrobial treatment decision making. Top Keywords Diabetic foot, MRSA, Methicillin. Top |