Susceptibility patterns and cross resistances of antibiotics against <it>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</it> in a teaching hospital of Turkey

• Main Authors: Özer Serdar, Batırel Ayşe, Benzonana Nur, Ak Öznur, Gençer Serap
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2002-10-01
• Series: Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials
• Online Access: http://www.ann-clinmicrob.com/content/1/1/2

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</it> is the third most common pathogen responsible for nosocomial infections and the prevalence of multiple resistant isolates has been increasing. Ninety-nine clinical isolates were studied in order to assess the current levels of susceptibility and cross-resistances of widely used antipseudomonal antibiotics against <it>P. aeruginosa</it> and to determine some resistance mechanisms by phenotypic methods.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>MICs of isolates for nine antipseudomonal antibiotics were determined by the E test method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thirty-six percent of isolates were resistant to more than one group of antibiotics. The rates of susceptible isolates were ciprofloxacin 75%, amikacin 73%, ceftazidime 65%, meropenem 63%, imipenem 63%, piperacillin/tazobactam 60%, cefoperazone/sulbactam 59%, cefepime 54% and tobramycin 44%. The majority of carbapenem resistant isolates were susceptible to ciprofloxacin and amikacin.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Ciprofloxacin seems to be the most active agent against <it>P. aeruginosa</it> followed by amikacin in our unit. The usefulness of combinations of these antibiotics and β-lactams should be tested in treating multi-drug resistant <it>P. aeruginosa.</it></p>