A study of Microorganisms causing wound infections after Elective laparotomy

Any purulent discharge from a closed surgical incision, after surgery, together with signs of inflammation of the surrounding tissue should be considered as Post operative (post-op) wound infection. There are two types of wounds in elective laparotomy: clean and contaminated wound Objective: To find out most causative microorganism involved in post-op wound infection in elective laparotomy cases at the Children Hospital and The Institute of Child Health Sciences, Lahore Pakistan. Methods: It was a prospective observational study conducted on patients who developed wound infection after elective laparotomy. This study was conducted in the surgical Units I and II of Children Hospital Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan. The duration of the study was 11 months from January 2019 to November 2019. 150 patients were included in this study. Data was collected by convenient sampling technique. It was a hospital-based study in which patients from both genders were included. Data was obtained by a questionnaire. Patients were asked for wound condition and surgery details were taken to find out the reasons of wound infection. The data selected was analyzed using SPSS version 21.0. Results: Out of total 150 patients who underwent elective laparotomy, 40% patients were identified with Escherichia Coli, 13.3% patients identified with Pseudomonas species, 13.3% patients had klebsiella, 6.7% patients had Pseudomonas Florescence, 6.7% people had Acinetobacter, 6.7% had Staphylococcus aureus, 13.3% did not show any growth. Conclusions: It was concluded that most abundant microorganism isolated from patients who underwent elective laparotomy was Escherichia coli. The most common reasons for wound infection were increase in number of surgeons and increase in duration of illness.