Microbiological profile and their antibiotic sensitivity pattern in patients of chronic suppurative otitis media at eastern tertiary care center of Nepal

Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is one of the most common and an important global public health problem leading to hearing impairment and is particularly prevalent in developing countries. Even in this era of powerful antibiotics, due to increased irrational use of wide spectrum antibiotics, the resistance in the bacterial isolates is common. The objective of the study was to determine the aerobic bacterial etiology of patients with CSOM and the antimicrobial susceptibility of the bacteria isolated. A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in 112 patients suffering from chronic discharging ear. Pus samples were cultured aerobically. Antibiotic sensitivity testing was performed with standard antibiotic discs using modified Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Out of 112 patients, 70 (62.5%) were females. Among 112 swab cultures, 98 (87.5%) were positive for the growth of organism and 14 (12.5%) were sterile cultures. Among them Staphylococcus aureus (42.24%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (28.44%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (10.34%), Acinetobacter anitratus (6.9%), Proteus mirabilis (5.17%) and E. coli (4.31%) were the common microbial isolates. Among the antibiotics commonly available as topical eardrops, Ofloxacin (91.83%)) had the highest susceptibility rate, followed by Ciprofloxacin (81.63%), Tobramycin (73.46%) and Gentamicin (63.26%). Staphylococcus aureus was the most common organism isolated followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Ofloxacin had the highest susceptibility rate against the isolated organisms.