Three-year survey of amikacin use and aminoglycoside resistance in a general hospital in Belgium

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of intensive use of amikacin on the resistance levels to amikacin, gentamicin, tobramycin, netilmicin and dibekacin. The base-line resistance in the preamikacin phase (three months of amikacin use less than 1 %; 676 isolates) was 1.0 % for amikacin, 11.4 % for gentamicin, 8.0 % tobramycin, 6.2 % for netilmicin and 8.3 % for dibekacin. During the amikacin phase (36 months of average amikacin use of 89 %; 6048 isolates) there was no significant change in aminoglycoside resistance except for dibekacin (from 8.3 % to 10.9 %, 0.05>p>0.02). Isolated amikacin resistance was not observed.