European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MICROORGANISMS AND RELATED SKIN INFECTIONS DURING THE COURSE OF CHEMICALLY DIFFERENT ORTHOPEDIC CASTS APPLIED FOR BONE FRACTURE TREATMENT

Divya Pandey, Ashok Vidyarthi, Monica Agrawal and *Manish Kumar Agrawal

ABSTRACT

The study was undertaken to compare the growth of microorganisms under the different casting and different stockinets castings used to immobilize the bones during bone fractures in India. The samples were divided into three categories, i.e. Plaster of Paris casts with cotton beddings, fiberglass casts without stockinette, but with cotton padding and fiberglass plasters with stockinette of synthetic rubber. Samples were taken immediately after the cast is removed after the onset of 21 days. Out of the total 108 patients studied, the patients having casts of plaster of Paris with cotton pads as stockinette showed higher contaminations of microorganism that included both bacteria and fungi. The patients having fiberglass plasters with cotton padding and fiberglass padding with synthetic rubber stockinette showed the less contamination of microorganism than the plaster of Paris. Among microbes were bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus., Bacillus subtilis., Escherichia coli, Streptococcus species, Brucella species, Alcaligenes species, Proteus species and Fungi: Aspergillus niger., Mucor species, Trichoderma species, Dematium species and Rhizopus species. The usual and cheaper version of cast with plaster of Paris and cotton underlining promotes the dermatophytic bacteria and fungi and should be avoided.

Keywords: Bone fracture, orthopedic casts, skin infections, Plaster of Paris, Fiber glass cast.