Antibiobitc susceptibility pattern of bacterial isolates from patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Lahore

To determine the antimicrobial sensitivity pattern of bacterial isolates from patients admitted in a tertiary care hospital of Lahore. The study was carried out in Department of Pathology, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore from January 2010 to June 2010. The samples from the hospital were sent to microbiology laboratory for bacteriological examination. They were cultured onto Blood and MacConkey agar plates; organisms were identified by their colonial morphology, Gram Staining and appropriate biochemical tests using standard recommended protocol. Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the bacterial isolates recovered from different clinical specimens against penicillins,, cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, carbapenems, aminoglycosides and trimethoprim sulphmethoxazole was determined using modified Kirby Bauer method. Among the 925 different clinical samples, 379 organisms were isolated. Escherichia coli and Klebsiella species were the most prevalent isolates followed by Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus spp. High degree of resistance was observed among gram negative organisms to all groups of antibiotics. Resistance to amikacin ranged from 12- 18% among different species of Gram negative isolates whereas the range of carbapenem resistance was 1.4 - 9.5%. The percentage of oxacillin resistance among staphylococcal isolates was 33.1%, but all were sensitive to vancomycin. High frequency of resistance observed in the present study indicates that antibiotic resistance among nosocomial isolates is a serious problem. There is a continuous need of surveillance of sensitivity patterns of antimicrobial agents in our set up to know about the trend of this problem