Antimicrobial resistance in patients admitted to intensive care units

Abstract

Background: the causal agents of infections in closed health departments for the care of seriously ill patients and the in vitro behavior of the existing antimicrobial resistance is a constantly changing phenomenon.Objective: to describe the microbiological pattern of antimicrobial resistance of the germs most frequently isolated in bacteriological studies of seriously ill patients admitted to the “Dr. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna” Hospital of Las Tunas, between January and June 2017.Methods: a cross-sectional descriptive observational study was carried out on 884 bacteriological studies performed on all seriously ill patients admitted to the aforementioned institution, in the period of time already declared. The following variables were assessed: culture positivity, location of the sample, most frequently isolated germs, antimicrobial resistance. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: 57,92 % of the cultures were positive. 91,99 % of the isolations corresponded to gram-negative bacteria. The secretions of the respiratory tract, catheter and blood were the most frequent ones. There was a greater existence of non-fermenting bacilli (47,27 %), followed by Klebsiella ssp. (19,53 %). The resistance pattern showed a high resistance of the gram-negative germs to ampicillin (99,22 %), cefazolin (99,07 %), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (98,86 %) and ceftriaxone (98,33 %); the study on gram-positive bacteria reported resistance to 12 antibiotics, with values above 60 %; non-fermenting bacilli and Klebsiella ssp. showed 100 % resistance to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and ceftriaxone.Conclusions: the study described the microbiological pattern of antimicrobial resistance of the most frequently isolated germs in the bacteriological cultures of seriously ill patients.

Keywords

• patient acuity
• gram-negative bacteria
• gram-positive bacteria
• anti-infective agents
• anti-bacterial agents.