Ulcers especially chronic ulcers pose a significant health care burden worldwide. The non- healing of such ulcers could be due to multiple factors among which bacterial infections are the forerunners. The present study was undertaken for a period of 1 year from February 2015 to know the prevalence of various types of chronic ulcers in our locality as well as to compare the flora obtained from the various types of ulcers. We had identified diabetic foot ulcers as the most prevalent type among the study population followed by venous ulcer s& decubitus ulcers. On comparison of pattern of flora of the above types of ulcers in our study it was observed that all of them had a predominant monomicrobial infection with equal proportions of Gram positive & Gram negative isolates, but there was diversity in the individual isolates from different types of ulcers.

Keywords: Chronic ulcers, diabetic ulcers, venous ulcers, decubitus ulcers, bacterial flora

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Dr Akhila Aravind

Senior Resident, Department of Microbiology,

Govt. Medical College, Ernakulam, Kerala, India