Isolation & study of multidrug resistant Acinetobacter from various clinical samples in a tertiary care hospital

Nosocomial infections with Acinetobacter are being increasingly reported worldwide from debilitated& Critical care patients. Multidrug resistance among Acinetobacter are now a major cause of concern. So the study was conducted to know prevalence & antimicrobial resistance pattern of Acinetobacter species in our area.

A total of 100 non-duplicate clinical specimens were processed for Acinetobacter by the routine microbiological procedures. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed as per CLSI guidelines.

Acinetobacter species were isolated from 9% of clinical samples. The higher percentage of isolates were from Pus 7(20%) followed by urine 1(4%) and 1(3%) from Blood. We found Highest isolates were from ICU-7(77.78%) followed by wards 2(22.22%). No isolates were found from Outpatient (OPD). 77% of our isolates showed resistance to drugs piperacillin-tazobactam and ceftriaxone while lower resistance was noted to ciprofloxacin &tetracyclines (33% respectively). Resistance pattern for other drugs was co-trimaxazole (66%), gentamycin & piperacillin (55% respectively), amikacin, ofloxacin & imepenem-44%. Interesting finding in our study was 11% of our isolated were sensitive to all the tested antimicrobials whereas 22% isolates were resistant to all the tested antimicrobials.

22% of our isolates showed resistant to all the tested antimicrobials. Thus judicial use of antimicrobials & adopting strict infection control policies will be useful.