Production of Slime Layer by Staphylococcus Epidermidis Isolated from Hip and Knee Joint Infections during Revision Arthroplasty of Patients in Abn- Sina Hospital in Baghdad

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the ability of Staphylococcus epidermidis strains to produce slime
layer and biofilm formation during a period of study which extended from1 October, 2016 till 1 October, 2017.
Analytic Profile Index (API) system for Staph (Bio-Merieux, France) was used to identify of bacteria to species
level. According to Kirby-Bauer (disk diffusion) technique, the antimicrobial susceptibility test was done.
Frequency of Staphylococcus epidermidis strains isolated from hip and knee joint infections was higher in
male than female patients, 12(85.7%) vs. 2 (14.3%) (P-value ≤ 0.05).From antimicrobial susceptibility test, the
most effective antibiotic was Vancomycin which showed 100% susceptibility rate and the highest resistance
rate was to Benzylpenicillin (85.7 %.) followed by Erythromycin and Ampicillin (78.6%). Staphylococcus
epidermidis strains were revealed different degrees of resistance towards remaining antibiotics. Out of 14
Staphylococcus epidermidis strains under study, 11(78.6%) of Staphylococcus epidermidis strains were slime
layer production, while only 3(21.4%) of Staphylococcus epidermidis strains were non slime layer production
(P-value ≤ 0.05) this indicate that Staphylococcus epidermidis strains from Hip and knee infections have the
ability to format biofilm.
Key words: Staphylococcus epidermidis, Hip and knee infections, Osteomyelitis, Slime layer production and
Biofilm formation.