Prevalence of Organisms Causing ICU-Acquired Infections and their Antibiotic Sensitivity Patterns in a Tertiary Care Hospital

The care of critically ill patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) is a basic feature of modern medicine. Nosocomial infections are a major cause of death and increased morbidity in hospitalised patients. Patients admitted in the ICU are at greater risk of acquiring nosocomial infections. This study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital to determine the prevalence of nosocomial infections in the ICU, the common organisms involved and their antibiotic sensitivity (ABST) patterns.

This study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital, Pune. Microorganisms causing ICU-acquired and non-ICU-acquired infections were identified by routine conventional methods. The ABST patterns were determined as per the Clinical and laboratory standard institute guidelines.

A total of 272 samples were received from 124 ICU patients within 6 months, of which 141 (51.83%) samples were positive and 24 (19.35%) patients suffered from nosocomial infections. The commonest nosocomial infection was the respiratory tractinfection (75%), followed byurinarytract infection (33.3%). Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the commonest organism (70.8%), followed by Staphylococcus aureus (33.3%) and coagulase-negative staphylococcus sp (33.3%). S. aureus and Klebsiella sp. strains isolated from the ICU-acquired infections were more resistant to antibiotics.

It is important to know the prevalence of microorganisms causing ICU-acquired infections and their ABST patterns to determine proper antibiotic policy for the treatment of the ICU patients.