Open AccessThe Novel Role of Healing from Bacterial Infections of Lower Limb Open Fractures by X-Ray Exposure
Author(s) -
Ali Abdul Hussein Mahdi,
Tuqa S. Al-Salmani,
Mustafa M. Al-Qaisi
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1687-9198
pISSN - 1687-918X
DOI - 10.1155/2020/3129356
Subject(s) - klebsiella pneumoniae , staphylococcus aureus , pseudomonas aeruginosa , microbiology and biotechnology , antibiotics , medicine , isolation (microbiology) , bacteria , escherichia coli , biology , biochemistry , genetics , gene
Objective To confirm the role of X-ray exposure in treating infected wound fractures at the lower limb and determine X-ray exposure times.Methods Fifty-one wound swabs were collected from patients with infected open fractures at the lower limb with grade II, IIIA, B, and C according to the Gustilo and Anderson classification system and then cultured. The bacterial isolates were identified by biochemical tests and the VITEK-2 System and tested against several antibiotics. The X-ray exposure was done for open fractures by radiography (at kV133 and 5 milliambers).Results The higher isolation rate was recorded for Staphylococcus aureus with 21 (41.2%) isolates, and most of them (20, 95.2%) were isolated from grade II fractures. The isolation rate of Gram-negative bacteria was 25.5% for Escherichia coli with 13 isolates, 19.6% for Pseudomonas aeruginosa with 10 isolates, and 13.7% for Klebsiella pneumoniae with 7 isolates, most of which were isolated from grade III fractures. The isolation rate of P. aeruginosa was 60% (6 isolates) from grade IIIA and 71.4% (5 isolates) from grade IIIB for K. pneumoniae , while for E. coli it was 69.2% (9 isolates) from grade IIIC. All the bacterial isolates recorded high levels of antibiotic resistance against most tested antibiotics. Wound cultures of grade II fractures appeared sterile after the first X-ray exposure, and these wounds were infected with S. aureus or P. aeruginosa . However, cultures of grade IIIA and IIIB fractures appeared sterile after the second X-ray exposure for all isolated bacteria, except for S. aureus (grade IIIA fractures) (after the third X-ray exposure). Grade IIIC fractures showed sterile culture after the third X-ray exposure for wounds infected with P. aeruginosa and E. coli .Conclusions The study concluded that X-ray exposure showed high effectiveness in treating infected open fractures.