Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Nov 15:13:71.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2415-13-71.

External ocular surface bacterial isolates and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns among pre-operative cataract patients at Mulago National Hospital in Kampala, Uganda

Barnabas Mshangila, Musana Paddy, Henry Kajumbula, Charles Ateenyi-Agaba, Binta Kahwa, Jeremiah Seni  1
Affiliations

External ocular surface bacterial isolates and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns among pre-operative cataract patients at Mulago National Hospital in Kampala, Uganda

Barnabas Mshangila et al. BMC Ophthalmol. .

Abstract

Background: Endophthalmitis is a severe complication of cataract surgery which leads to high ocular morbidity and visual loss even with antibiotic treatment. Bacterial ocular floras are the implicated causative agents. This study was undertaken to evaluate the external ocular surface bacterial isolates and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns among pre-operative cataract patients at Mulago National Hospital.

Methods: This cross sectional study enrolled consecutively 131 patients scheduled for routine cataract surgery in the Department of Ophthalmology at Mulago National Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. Eyelid margin and conjunctival swabs were collected and processed using standard microbiological procedures to identify bacterial isolates and their respective antimicrobial susceptibility patterns.

Results: Of 131 patients involved (mean age 63.3 ± 14.5 years), 54.2% (71/131) were females. The eyelid margin and conjunctival samples were culture positive in 59.5% (78/138) and 45.8% (60/138) respectively. The most common organisms identified were Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CoNS) [65.9% (91/138)] and Staphylococcus aureus [21.0% (29/138)]. CoNS showed the highest resistance to tetracycline (58.2%, 53/91) and erythromycin (38.5%, 35/91), whereas in S. aureus the resistance to tetracycline and erythromycin were 55.2% (16/29) and 31.0% (9/29) respectively. Methicillin resistant CoNS (MRS) and Methicillin resistance S. aureus (MRSA) were 31.9% (29/91) and 27.6% (8/29) respectively. There were low resistance rates for CoNS, S. aureus and other bacterial isolates to ciprofloxacin (11.1%-24.2%), gentamicin (5.6-31.0%), tobramycin (17.2% -25.3%) and vancomycin (0.0%).

Conclusion: CoNS and S. aureus are the most common bacterial isolates found on the external ocular surface of the pre-operative cataract patients. Ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, tobramycin and vancomycin showed the lowest resistance rates to all bacterial isolates, therefore may be used to reduce bacteria load in the conjunctiva sac among cataract patients prior to surgery.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Mandell GL, Bennett JE, Dolin R, editor. Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. 6. Philadelphia, Pa, USA: Churchill Livingstone; 2005.
    1. Jambulingam M, Parameswaran SK, Lysa S, Selvaraj M, Madhavan HN. A study on the incidence, microbiological analysis and investigations on the source of infection of postoperative infectious endophthalmitis in a tertiary care ophthalmic hospital: an 8-year study. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2010;58(4):297–302. doi: 10.4103/0301-4738.64132. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Callegan MC, Engelbert M, Parke DW 2nd, Jett BD, Gilmore MS. Bacterial endophthalmitis: epidemiology, therapeutics, and bacterium-host interactions. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2002;15(1):111–124. doi: 10.1128/CMR.15.1.111-124.2002. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Speaker MG, Milch FA, Shah MK, Eisner W, Kreiswirth BN. Role of external bacterial flora in the pathogenesis of acute postoperative endophthalmitis. Ophthalmology. 1991;98(5):639–649. doi: 10.1016/S0161-6420(91)32239-5. discussion 650. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bannerman TL, Rhoden DL, McAllister SK, Miller JM, Wilson LA. The source of coagulase-negative staphylococci in the Endophthalmitis Vitrectomy Study, A comparison of eyelid and intraocular isolates using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Arch Ophthalmol. 1997;115(3):357–361. doi: 10.1001/archopht.1997.01100150359008. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances