ABSTRACT
Aims@#Recent reports indicate that many coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) strains are resistant to most antimicrobials used against staphylococcal infections. This study was aimed to determine the species distribution of the CoNS isolates in Lokman Hekim Ankara Hospital and determine their antimicrobial resistance characteristics.@*Methodology and results@#The study was conducted at Lokman Hekim University Ankara Hospital between February 2020 and August 2021. The 154 blood cultures included in the study were incubated in the BACTEC FX40 automated blood culture device. Identification and antimicrobial susceptibility tests of the samples with positive catalase tests were performed with the BD Phoenix Automated Microbiology Sensitivity System. The statistical significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Nineteen different types of methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (MRCoNS) isolated from different age groups were identified. Vancomycin resistance was observed in 20 samples (13%). Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) resistance was seen in 44 of 152 samples (28.6%), linezolid resistance in 15 of 143 samples (10.5%) and daptomycin resistance in 16 of 146 blood samples (11%).@*Conclusion, significance and impact of study@#In our investigation, there has been a striking rise in the prevalence of vancomycin, TMP-SMX, linezolid and daptomycin resistance among infections with the MRCoNS. Identifying and classifying multidrug resistance on MRCoNS requires reliable epidemiological data to be collected and compared between healthcare facilities in different countries. The research finding reported in this paper will contribute to the determination of alternative antibiotics for treating MRCoNS.