Antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial and fungal infections among infected diabetic patients.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of the most common bacterial and fungal infections among infected diabetic patients.

METHODS

This study was conducted at the Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, from June 2011 to June 2012, and comprised specimens collected from diabetics. Antibiotic susceptibility test using disc diffusion method was performed for bacterial isolates, and antifungal susceptibility test using colorimetric method for candida isolates.

RESULTS

Of the 138 specimens, antibacterial susceptibility test was performed for 129(93.5%) bacterial isolates while antifungal resistance test was performed for 9(6.5%) candida isolates. Of the bacterial isolates, 27(20.9%) were escherichia coli, 26(20.1%) staphylococcus aureus and 15(11.6%) were pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates. All Escherichia coli and staphylococcus aureus were susceptible to amikacin and vancomycin (100% each). Moreover, all candida species were susceptible to amphotericin B, econazole, fluconazole, ketoconazole and nystatin (100% each).

CONCLUSIONS

The most effective antibiotics for bacterial infections among diabetic patients were vancomycin for gram-positive bacteria, amikacin for gram-negative bacteria and for bacteria isolated from diabetic patients with foot infections.