Community-acquired bacteremia in adult patients attending the emergency service of a teaching hospital

Abstract

Bacteremia is an important cause of morbimortality. This study describes the episodes of community-acquired bacteremia in adult patients registered at our hospital. Between January 2005, and December 2009, 271 episodes were studied. The diagnostic yield of blood cultures was 13.5 %. A total of 52 % of patients were male and 48 % female. The mean age was 60. The most frequent comorbidities were: diabetes (21 %), neoplasia (18 %), cardiopathy (11 %), and HIV infection (8 %). The focus was- respiratory (21 %), urinary (15 %), cutaneous (9 %), and others (13 %). Gram-positive bacteria prevailed (51.4%). The most frequent microorganisms were Escherichia coli (25 %), Streptococcus pneumoniae (22.9 %), and Staphylococcus aureus (12.3 %). Bacteremia was polymicrobial in 7 % of the cases. Thirty three percent of E. coli isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin and 6 % to ceftazidime. Fourteen percent of S. aureus strains were resistant to oxacillin whereas only 7 % of S. pneumoniae expressed high resistance to penicillin with MICs = 2 ug/ml, according to meningitis breakpoints.