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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
The eye may be infected from external sources or through intra-ocular invasion of micro-organisms carried by the blood stream [1]. Bacteria are the major cause of ocular infections [2]. This study was undertaken to isolate and identify the microorganisms causing external ocular infections and to determine the in-vitro susceptibilities of bacteria to commonly used antibacterial agents. A cross sectional study was conducted among 110 patients with external ocular infections at Govt. Mohan kumaramangalam medical college hospital, Salem over a period of 6 months from July to December 2016.Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected using structured questionnaire. External ocular specimens were collected using sterile swabs and inoculated on mac conkey agar, chocolate agar, blood agar, mannitol salt agar and sabouraud’s dextrose agar culture Medias. Presumptive isolates were further identified by a series of biochemical tests. The antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of the isolates were determined by disc diffusion method. Out of 110 samples processed only 54(49%) showed growth. The overall prevalence of bacterial pathogens among external ocular samples was 46.3 % (n = 51/110) and of fungal pathogens was 2.7% (n = 3/110). The majority of the isolates (67 %; 36/54) were Gram positive bacteria and 28 % (15/54) Gram negative bacteria. The percentage of fungal isolates i.e., Candida spp. was 5 % (n = 3/54). The proportion of Staphylococcus aureus was 47% (n = 24/51) and Coagulase negative Staphylococci was 23.5 % (n = 12/51) among the Gram positive bacterial isolates. The proportion of Klebsiella spp. is 23.5 % (n = 12/51) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa 5.8% (n = 3/51) among the Gram negative bacterial isolates. All Gram positive isolates were susceptible to vancomycin. Majority of the Gram negative bacterial isolates showed susceptibility to ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin. The prevalence of bacterial pathogens among external ocular samples was high and the predominant isolate was Staphylococcus aureus. Conjunctivitis was found to be the dominant infection.