A five-year retrospective study of the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ICU clinical isolates in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa an opportunistic pathogen of clinical importance has been associated with infections in intensive care units worldwide. This study seeks to evaluate its susceptibility pattern over a five-year period in line with the recommended regional monitoring. Isolates were those of obtained from patients in intensive care units. Bacteria isolation was by basic bacteriological and biochemical methods. The VITEK 2 compact automated system (BioMerieux, Marcy L’Etoile, France) was used for ID confirmation and antimicrobial susceptibility assay. Data was analysed and represented as percentages as well as mean percentage ± standard error of mean (SEM). A total of 580 samples were used for the investigation. Fifty two percent (52%) of them were from males while 48% were from females. Age distribution data shows that P. aeruginosa infection was seen to be more associated in patients within the age range of 51 y and above with a total incidence was 81.25%. Colistin maintained 100% sensitivity to this bacterium throughout the duration of the study. However, for the beta lactam agents, fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides and tigecycline, there was a decline in sensitivity from 70.4% in 2013 to 33.1% in 2017. Consequently, there was an observed growing resistance to anti-Pseudomonal drugs, from 14.7% in 2013 to 50.8% in 2017, representing a 3.5 fold increase that is alarming. Also, the mean MAR index of the antibiotic susceptibility was 0.43. The obtained results point to possibility of the isolates originating from a high risk source of contamination region where there high antibiotics use.