Analysis of Blood Cultures from Major Burns Patients in a Tertiary Care Burn Unit in Oman.

Objectives: This study aimed to review the blood stream infections of major burn patients in a tertiary care burn unit to determine the most prevalent infecting organisms in order to have a better empirical therapy protocol.

Methods: This retrospective study analysed the blood stream infection of 155 major burn (>20% Total Body Surface Area [TBSA]) patients in Khoula Hospital, Muscat, Oman between January 2014 to December 2019.

Results: The median age was 33 years and 57.42% of patients were male. The median TBSA was 38%, mortality was 25.16% and 50.9% of patients had positive blood cultures. The expired patients had higher TBSAs, Abbreviated Burns Severity Index scores and earlier first positive blood cultures. was commonly grown in all the blood cultures, but the most prevalent organisms were , , , and . All species are multidrug resistant. Of the 17 patients who had grown in the blood culture, 8 grew multidrug-resistant . Only 4 patients' blood cultures grew methicillin-resistant . The number of blood culture samples taken ranged between 1-28 (median = 6). The first positive blood culture showed that and were the most common infecting organisms.

Conclusions: Multidrug-resistant was the most predominant microorganism grown from the blood cultures of major burn patients in a tertiary care burn unit. Empirical therapy should include antibiotics that are effective against this organism to reduce the mortality.