Background: Urinary tract infections are the most commonly acquired bacterial infections and they account for an estimated 25-40% of the nosocomial infections. The microbial biofilms pose a public health problem for the persons who require indwelling medical devices, as the microorganisms in the biofilms are difficult to treat with antimicrobial agents.
Aims: The present study included the isolation and the biofilm formation of the uropathogens in patients with catheter associated urinary tract infections.
Methods and materials: This prospective analysis which was carried out over a period of two months, included 50 urine samples from catheterized patients with symptoms of UTI. Following their isolation and identification, all the isolates were subjected to the biofilm detection by the tube adherence method and the Congo Red agar method.
Results: E.coli was found to be the most frequently isolated uropathogen 35(70%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae 8(16%), Pseudomona aeruginosa 2(4%), Acinetobacter spp 1(2%), coagulase negative Staphylococci 3(6%) and Enterococci spp 1(2%). In the current study, 30 (60%) strains were positive in vitro for the biofilm production.
Conclusion: To conclude, there was significant bacteriuria in all the symptomatic catheterized patients and E.coli was the most frequent isolate. Diabetes (44%) was the most common factor which was associated with the UTIs in the catheterized patients.
Keywords: Biofilm; The Congo Red agar method; The tube adherence method; Uropathogens.