• Thimmappa Latha, Bhat Anil, Hande Manjunatha, Mukhopadhyay Chiranjay, Devi Elsa, Nayak Baby, and George Anice.
• Manipal College of Nursing Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education Manipal.
• Afr Health Sci. 2019 Mar 1; 19 (1): 1393-1401.

BackgroundThe rate of infection is high and heterogeneous in developing countries. This study aimed to find the rate and pattern of infection in a tertiary care hospital with a goal to improve the infection control practices.MethodsThe study was conducted in the orthopedic units of a multispecialty teaching hospital. Medical records of major orthopedic surgery adult patients without immunosuppression state were included. The bacterial culture report of the wound swabs were noted over a period of one year. The bacterial culture testing was performed by a recommended method.ResultsAmong 2,249 orthopedic surgery patients, 83.7% were males, 49.1% had open wounds during admission and 32.2% patients were infected. Majority (64.2%) of the injuries were in the lower limb with 19.4% patients having undergone multiple surgeries during hospitalization. A total of 946 pathogens were grown from 725 specimens. Staphylococcus aureus was the maximum (48.4%) followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (26.3%) and E coli (16.7%). Among them, 57.3% were Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and was the leading pathogen causing infection among orthopedic patients.ConclusionMRSA infection was high. Consequent to this, an interventional program entitled 'Extended Infection Control Measures' was designed to reduce the burden of infection.

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