Antibiotic resistance pattern of bacterial pathogens in elderly patients admitted in the intensive care unit

Abstract

To identify and to determine the resistance pattern of bacterial pathogens involved in infections of the elderly patients (≥ 65 years) admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) at County Emergency Clinical Hospital Craiova, Romania. A retrospective study of bacterial pathogens was carried out on 463 elderly patients (≥ 65 years) admitted to the ICU, from January to December 2017. The analysis of the resistance patterns for the action of the appropriate antibiotics was performed using Vitek 2 Compact system and diffusion method. In this study there were analyzed 617 samples from 463 elderly patients (≥ 65 years). A total of 776 bacterial isolates were obtained, of which 175 strains of Klebsiella spp. (22.55%), followed by MRSA - Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (108 -13.91%) and Escherichia coli (99 -12.75%). The most common isolates were from respiratory tract (572 isolates -73.71%). High rates of MDR were found for Pseudomonas (73.07%), MRSA (62.03%) and Klebsiella (44.57%). The study revealed an alarming pattern of antibiotic resistance in the majority of ICU isolates from elderly patients (≥65 years), which draws attention to the need for judicious use of antibiotics and for careful monitoring of the drug resistance of patients.