Antibiotic-resistant acinetobacter baumannii in burn wounds of Intensive Care Unit admitted patients: a single centered, cross-sectional study

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) in burn wound patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and to investigate the antibiotic resistance profile of these A. baumannii isolates. Wound samples were collected from patients at Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery from September 2023 to March 2024, yielding 70 A. baumannii isolates. The samples were initially collected in saline-containing test tubes using Rayon swabs, then spread onto MacConkey agar. Pink round shaped colonies were picked and subcultured on Leed Acinetobacter Medium (LAM) overnight at 37 C. After the incubation plates were observed and those round shaped light pink color colonies with mauve color background colonies are considered as A. bumannii and these isolates were further confirmed by conventional PCR targeting the blaOXA-51 gene. Gel electrophoresis was performed to confirm the PCR results and antibiotic susceptibility testing was carried out using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Among the 70 A. baumannii isolates, 100% were Multidrug Resistant (MDR) while 77.14% were Extensively Drug Resistant(XDR). There were no antibiotics that all the isolates were sensitive to. The isolates demonstrated the lowest resistance against the antibiotics from the tetracycline group, Tetracycline (58.57%) and Doxycycline (38.58%). However, all isolates exhibited complete 100% resistance to both Ceftazidime and Ampicillin-sulbactam. The high prevalence of MDR and XDR A. baumannii in hospital settings presents significant challenges in treatment management, complicating therapeutic options and highlighting the need for stringent infection control measures.