Antimicrobial Susceptibility and Resistance Profile of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates from Patients at an Egyptian Hospital

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a standout amongst the most hazardous microorganisms of high morbidity and mortality rates especially in debilitated patients with few successful antibiotic choices available due to the rapid dissemination of antimicrobials resistance. Therefore, the present study was intended to examine the susceptibility and resistance pattern of various Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates taken from patients at an Egyptian hospital against commonly prescribed anti-pseudomonal antibiotics. In the current study, 150 Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were recovered from different types of specimens (urine, sputum and wound-burn) and identified using classical standard procedures. The isolates were 44 from urine, 61 from sputum and 45 from burn-wound infections. After identification, all Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility test using disc diffusion technique. According to the specimens' type, the antimicrobial susceptibility profile of the tested isolates from urine specimens exhibited the highest susceptibility against colistin sulfate (88.64%) and to a lower extent imipenem (75%). On the other hand, urine isolates showed the highest resistance to piperacillin (22.73%). The isolates from sputum specimens showed the highest susceptibility against colistin sulfate (98.36%) followed by both aztreonam and ciprofloxacin (80.33%) while the same isolates showed the highest resistance to gentamicin (37.79%) and both piperacillin and ceftazidime (22.95%). Finally, the highest susceptibility of the isolates recovered from burn-wound specimens was against colistin sulfate (82.22%) and levofloxacin (75.56%) and the highest resistance was obtained against gentamicin (42.22%) and both piperacillin and ceftazidime (37.78%). In addition, our data revealed that 30% of the isolates tested were found to be multi-drug resistant. In view of the present outcomes, we can infer that despite the fact of the development of multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, which are difficult to be treated, some available antibiotics still able to dominate pseudomonal infections with a reasonable percentage of success, for example, colistin sulfate and quinolones (ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin). At last, it is very important to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility and resistance behavior of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to initiate an effective therapy especially in cases of multi-drug resistant strains.