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Page 8 of 16 Tejiram et al. Plast Aesthet Res. 2025;12:9 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-9264.2024.109

Table 2. Demographics and injury characteristics
Characteristic All ABX group No-ABX group P-value
No. of patients, No. (%) 31 (100%) 13 (41.9%) 18 (58.1%)
Male, No. (%) 20 (64.5%) 6 (46.2%) 14 (77.8%) 0.12
Age, year, mean ± SD 40.8 ± 14.2 44.5 ± 12.5 38.2 ± 15.0 0.22
Ethnicity, No. (%) 0.65
Caucasian 10 (32.3%) 4 (30.8%) 6 (33.3%)
African American 16 (51.6%) 7 (53.8%) 9 (50%)
Hispanic 3 (9.7%) 1 (7.7%) 2 (11.1%)
Other 1 (3.2%) 1 (7.7%) 0 (0%)
Burn location, No. (%)
Hand 11 (35.5%) 3 (23.1%) 8 (44.4%)
Arm 6 (19.4%) 2 (15.4%) 4 (22.2%)
Chest 1 (3.2%) 1 (7.7%) 0 (0.0%)
Abdomen 1 (3.2%) 1 (7.7%) 0 (0.0%)
Back 3 (9.7%) 2 (15.4%) 1 (5.6%)
Leg 6 (19.4%) 3 (23.1%) 3 (16.7%)
Foot 3 (9.7%) 1 (7.7%) 2 (11.1%)
BMI, mean ± SD 29.4 ± 5.2 30.5 ± 5.3 28.6 ± 5.2 0.32
Autograft, No. (%) 18 (58.1%) 7 (53.8%) 11(61.1%) 0.73
%TBSA burned, median (IQR) 3.4 (1.5-5.5) 3.5 (1.5-5.8) 3.3 (1-5.6) 0.83
Time ADM to OR (days), median (IQR) 2 (1-3) 2 (1.5-3) 2 (1-3) 0.81
LOS (days), median (IQR) 6 (4-7) 5 (3-6) 6.5 (4-8) 0.26

Demographics and injury characteristics compared between patients who received perioperative antibiotics (ABX group) and those who did not
(No-ABX). BMI: Body mass index; TBSA: total body surface area; LOS: length of stay.

(buccal swab and wound bed swab) and time point (intraop, dressing takedown, and follow-up). After
quality filtering and decontamination, sequence counts ranged from 1,299-122,456 per sample, with a total
of eighty-three buccal swab and one hundred and six wound bed swab samples being used for downstream
analysis.

Antibiotic administration and its impact on overall diversity
Alpha diversity among the buccal swab samples did not differ significantly for any of the three metrics
(Faith’s Phylogenetic Diversity, Observed Features, and Pielou’s Evenness) based on ABX administration,
with the exception of dressing takedown, in which the ABX group had significantly higher evenness than
the no-ABX group. Similarly, alpha diversity among the wound bed samples also did not differ significantly
for any of the three metrics. Likewise, samples did not significantly (PERMANOVA, P ≤ 0.05) cluster within
any time point based on ABX administration for both buccal swab and wound bed samples.

LEfSe plot comparisons of wound bed culture swabs at take down revealed 29 enriched taxa in the ABX
group compared to the no-ABX group [P ≤ 0.05, log(LDA) ≥ 2]. Some ABX-enriched taxa include
Acinetobacter, Micrococcales, Intrasporangiaceae, and Meiothermus [Figure 2]. Furthermore, the entire
domain of bacteria was enriched at follow-up in the wound bed ABX patients, whereas only 12 taxa were
enriched in the no-ABX patients at this time point [Figure 3A]. Enriched no-ABX taxa included
Haemophilus, Veillonella, Pasteurellales, Methylobacterium, and Oscillospirales. Besides the wound bed swab
follow-up LEfSe comparison, the only other comparison with more taxa enriched in the no-ABX group was
the buccal swab intraoperative comparison, which only had one taxa (Streptococcus anginosus) enriched. As
seen in Figure 3B, buccal swab samples revealed more than 10 enriched taxa at follow-up in the ABX group