Etiology of ICU infections and antibiogram of the isolates at referral center in Riyadh

Patients undergoing treatment in intensive care unirs [ICU] are prone to increased risk of developing serious and life-threatening infections. These infections become more significant in immunocompromised particularly those caused by multi-resistant pathogens. In order to determine the etiology of intensive care unit [ICU] acquired infections and identify the predominant infecting organisms in a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh. We retrospectively examined the sites of infections, causative agents and their susceptibility to commonly used drugs. Of the 984 specimens processed in 1994, 261 grew normal flora; pathogenic bacteria were isolated from 672 patient specimens. The majority of the specimens yielding pathogens came from respiratory tract [385], followed by blood [149], urine [40], and others. Most frequently isolated pathogens were pseudomonas aeruginosa [153], escherichia coli [152], staphylococcus aureus [103], klebsiella pneumoniae [99] and serratia marcescens [48]. Seven% of the infections were polymicrobial. Susceptibility of the organisms to following drugs was tested: ampicillin amoxicillin and clavulanic acid amikacin, cephazolin, cefoxitin, ceftriaxone, ceftazidime, clindamycin, erythromycin, gentamicin, imipenem, oxacillin, penicillin, piperacillin, and vancomycin. The most inhibitory antimicrobial agent was imipenem which inhibited 98% of both gram-positive and gram-negative clinical isolates

In-vitro susceptibility of relatively resistant bacteria to imipenem

In vitro activity of imipenem was tested against 965 clinical isolated from a major referral center in Saudi Arabia. Many of these strains were highly resistant to commonly used antibiotics, such as ampicillin, cephalosporins, gentamicin, pperacillin, and ticarcillin. All the 727 isolated of Enterobacteriaceae, Acinetobacter, Staphylococcus aurous, enterococci, and other streptococci were susceptible to imipenem. Of the strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa [95%] and S. epidermidis [90%] were also inhibited. Nine of the 11 isolates of pseudomonads other than P. aeruginosa were resistant to this antibiotic

Susceptibility of pathogenic bacteria to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid[Augmentin] at a referral hospital

A total of 957 strains of basteria isolated from clinical specimens were tested in vitro to determine the efficacy of amoxicillin/clavulanic acid [Augmentin]. Sixty-seven percent of the 538 strains of Enterobacteriacease, 93% of 174 Staphylococcus aureus, and all the 48 isolates of enterococci were inhibited by Augmentin. All the 156 strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, P. Fluorescens, Enterobacter, Serratia, and shigella flexneri were resistant to Augmentin. Augmentin showed considerably increased activity against Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus species, and staphylococci when compared with ampicillin