Secular trends of antimicrobial resistance of blood isolates in a newly founded Greek hospital

Matthew E Falagas,George Georgoulias,Sofia K Kasiakou,Dimitra Nikita,Petros I Rafailidis,Panayiota Morfou

doi:10.1186/1471-2334-6-99

Abstract

BackgroundAntimicrobial resistance is one of the most challenging issues in modern medicine.MethodsWe evaluated the secular trends of the relative frequency of blood isolates and of the pattern of their in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility in our hospital during the last four and a half years.ResultsOverall, the data regarding the relative frequency of blood isolates in our newly founded hospital do not differ significantly from those of hospitals that are functioning for a much longer period of time. A noteworthy emerging problem is the increasing antimicrobial resistance of Gram-negative bacteria, mainly Acinetobacter baumannii and Klebsiella pneumoniae to various classes of antibiotics. Acinetobacter baumannii isolates showed an increase of resistance to amikacin (p = 0.019), ciprofloxacin (p = 0.001), imipenem (p < 0.001), and piperacillin/tazobactam (p = 0.01) between the first and second period of the study.ConclusionAn alarming increase of the antimicrobial resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii isolates has been noted during our study.

Highlights

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most challenging issues in modern medicine
Antimicrobial resistance is noted in all pathogens, some phenotypes of resistance such as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE), methicillin resistant coagulase negative staphylococci (MRCNS), and carbapenem resistant enterobacteriacae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii are of particular concern
Isolation of bacteria was followed by susceptibility testing that was performed with the Vitek 2 system, applying the criteria suggested by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) [4,5]

Summary

Introduction

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most challenging issues in modern medicine. Increasing antimicrobial resistance among bloodstream isolates is considered a significant problem worldwide [1,2]. This is especially true in some areas including the countries of Southern Europe where a considerable proportion of pathogens are resistant to antibiotics of several classes [3]. Antimicrobial resistance is noted in all pathogens, some phenotypes of resistance such as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE), methicillin resistant coagulase negative staphylococci (MRCNS), and carbapenem resistant enterobacteriacae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii are of particular concern.

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Discussion

Conclusion