RECENT TREND OF ACQUISITION OF MULTI-DRUG RESISTANCE IN PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA

Continues emergence of resistance among Pseudomonas (P.) aeruginosa strains to common antimicrobial drugs have been documented world-wide. This study investigated the antimicrobial resistance patterns of P.aeruginosa among the patients in mid & far western region of Nepal.

KEYWORDS

spinal cord injury; transplantation; olfactory ensheathing cells; efficacy evaluation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was conducted on 917 patients with suspected P.aeruginosa infections, attending outpatient and inpatient departments of Nepalgunj Medical College and teaching Hospital, Banke, Nepal from September 2011 to September 2013. Specimens were collected from Pus/wound, sputum, urine, tracheal aspirates, central venous catheter tip, broncho-alveolar lavage fluid, catheters and vaginal swabs and processed for isolation and identification of P.aeruginosa following the standard microbiological methods while the disc diffusion test was used to determine antimicrobial resistance patterns of the recovered isolates at the central Laboratory of Microbiology.

RESULTS

One hundred ninety four isolates were identified as P.aeruginosa. Resistance to chloramphenicol (74.23%), ceftriaxone (69.56%), Cefepime,(57.22%), Cefoperazone-Salbactum (54.12%) and co-trimoxazole (53.02%) was observed. All the isolates were susceptible to imipenem. 48 (24.74%) of P.aeruginosa isolates were multi-drug resistant to ≥3 classes of antibiotics. Among 194 isolates, 88 (45.36%) were from 21-40 years age group and this group was statistically significant (P<0.05), compared to the other age groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The study revealed the occurrence of drug resistant strains of P.aeruginosa. Many isolates showed appreciable levels of antibiotic resistance apparently due to antibiotic abuse. It therefore calls for a very judicious, rational treatment regimens prescription by the physicians to curb the increasing multi drug resistant of P.aeruginosa strains in this region of Nepal.

KEYWORDS

Clinical isolates, pseudomonas aeruginosa, antimicrobial resistance, Nepal