SCREENING AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF POST-CRANIOTOMY ASSOCIATED BETA-HEMOLYTIC PATHOGENIC BACTERIA AND MODULATION OF BACTERICIDAL POTENCY OF DIFFERENT ANTIBACTERIAL AGENTS AGAINST THESE ISOLATES

Background: Post-craniotomy neurosurgical infections pose a major challenge in everyday neurosurgery, impacting patient recovery and adding financial strain on healthcare systems. Even with improvements in surgical methods and infection prevention measures, these infections continue to lead to complications and deaths related to surgery. Objective: Screening and isolation of pathogenic strains from Post- craniotomy infections and sensitivity assessment against different antibacterial agents. Method: Collected samples were streaked onto Nutrient Agar medium and isolated colonies were streaked for pure culture. Pure cultures were subjected to Blood Agar Test for isolation of pathogenic bacteria (beta-hemolytic strains) from infections. Molecular characterization was done to confirm and identify the pathogenic strain and accession number was obtained by nucleotide blast at NCBI site. Sensitivity of pathogenic strains against antibiotics and plant extracts was checked and zone of inhibition was measured. ONE WAY ANOVA was applied for statistical analysis and Tuckey’s PostHoc test for comparison. P>0.05 was set as significant. Results: P. aeruginosa exhibited resistance against Erythromycin while B. subtilis showed sensitivity against Erythromycin with 21.56±0.06 zone of inhibition, Levofloxacin exhibited maximum antibacterial activity against P. aeruginosa with 19.97±0.12 and 16.36±0.04 zone of inhibition exhibited by B. subtilis against Levofloxacin. Gentamicin, showed moderate antibacterial activity against both P. aeruginosa and B subtilis with 15.78±0.02 and 13.51±0.07 zone of inhibition, respectively, but antibiotics exhibited non-significant difference with p>0.05. Both P. aeruginosa and B subtilis, showed sensitivity against plant extracts and plant extracts showed significant difference with p