Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Surgical site infections are a recurrent problem in veterinary medicine. A 2-5 % infection rate in clean surgery has been reported. During the last years the increase in methicillin resistant staphylococci has also taken its toll on veterinary medicine, demanding a stricter hygiene and antibiotic regime. The 2008 outbreak of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at the University animal hospital, Swedish University of Agriculture indicated that that the MRSA problem was now a real, possibly zoonotic problem.
Since the first dog, in Sweden, was diagnosed as a carrier of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) in a study in 2006, the infection rate by this bacterium has increased. In 2009 (January 1st - December 2nd) the National Veterinary Institute (SVA) has identified 58 samples as MRSP positive. The samples mostly originate from surgical site infections and skin infections.
The aim of this study was to investigate whether dogs that were treated surgically followed by hospitalization in the ward was at risk of contracting an MRSA or MRSP
infection. The intention was to sample the dogs at critical points throughout the treatment.
Forty-five dogs were included in the study and were all sampled at arrival to the animal hospital on the day of surgery. One sample was taken before surgery, another at the time when the surgeon had closed the wound and one sample was taken the day after surgery, before the dog was discharged. Carriership samples were taken on arrival and on the day when the stitches were removed.
At remission, one dog tested positive for MRSP carriership. One of the dogs had MRSP in the surgical site one day postoperatively. Five of the dogs were MRSP carriers when sampled at the time of stitch removal. One dog had an MRSP infection in the surgical wound at the time of stitch removal. The wound had been drained and treated with antibiotics eight days after surgery. None of the samples were positive for MRSA.