Abstract
Infection of wounds and complications followed are major problems associated with diabetes mellitus. Wound infections lead to severe consequences like heart disease, kidney disease, eye problems and osteomyelitis. Gangrene formation leads amputation and in case of sepsis, the mortality rate is high. The present study concentrates on enumerating the aerobic and anaerobic bacterial pathogens among diabetic and non-diabetic patients qualitatively and quantitatively. Age group between 60-70 showed higher infection rate when comparing with other age groups. Among them, 10 had localized gangrene and 13 had deep ulcer in foot ulcers. 3 patients had deep ulcer with no bone involvement and one had localized gangrene in hand ulcer. Males are frequently infected with pyogenic infections. Predominant organisms in diabetic foot ulcer were found to be Staphylococcus aureus (23/32), Streptococcus spp. (12/32) and Pseudomonas spp. (22/32). 75% of diabetic hand infections contained Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus spp. (6/8). Predominant organisms in non-diabetic lesions were Staphylococcus aureus (12/20) and Pseudomonas spp. (7/20). Clostridium spp. were observed on foot ulcer and pyogenic lesions at rate of 65.6% (21/32) and 35% (7/20). Total viable counts of aerobic bacteria from diabetic foot ulcers, diabetic hand ulcers and nondiabetic pyogenic infections were found to be 24.68 x10(9) CFU, 21.43x10(9) CFU and 18.75x10(9) CFU respectively. This confirms the higher prevalence of bacterial pathogens in diabetic patients than non-diabetic patients which leads to delayed wound healing.