Prevalence and Antibiotics resistance profile of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from post-operative wounds in secondary health facilities of Ilorin metropolis, Kwara State, Nigeria

Healthcare-associated infections are of different forms, with Surgical Site Infections (SSI) being the second most common type, they continue to be a relatively common postoperative complications and the most frequent reason for re-admission following surgery. Several data from around the world revealed Staphylococcus aureus to be the leading cause of surgical site infection. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the occurrence and drug resistance profile of Staphylococcus aureus and Methicilin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from post-operative wounds in secondary health facilities within the Ilorin metropolis. With the aid of sterile cotton swabs, a total of hundred and thirty-two (132) wound swab samples were obtained from patients who had been clinically diagnosed with surgical site infection. These samples were processed as per standard microbiological techniques. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated at an occurrence rate of 15.2%. Chi-square analysis showed that there was a significant difference in the number of isolates in relation to both hospitals (GHI and CHO) (p<0.05), the highest occurrence of Staphylococcus aureus (12.6%) was seen in GHI, while an occurrence rate of (24.1%) was recorded at CHO. The antimicrobial susceptibility profile revealed that 8(40%) of the S.aureus isolates were Methicilin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). S.aureus showed 100% susceptibility to Tigecycline and it was 100% resistant to Cefoxitin.  Therefore, these findings affirmed that there is significant resistance in Staphylococcus aureus isolated from post-operative wounds in health facilities of the Ilorin metropolis.