Prevalence Of Drug Resistance Among Enterococcus Spp Isolated From A Tertiary Care Hospital

Introduction: Enterococci, initially considered as normal commensal of intestinal tract, has recently emerged as a medically important pathogen causing hospital acquired infections. Incidence is significantly high in debilitated patients. One of the important causes of development of multi drug resistant enterococci is antibiotic selective pressure. This study aims to isolate enterococci from various clinical specimens of indoor patients and to find out in vitro antimicrobial activity against the isolates. Materials and methods: Samples were cultured on blood agar, MacConkey’s agar and Hi chrome media for Enterococcus faecium. Blood samples were collected in blood culture bottles. Isolates were identified up to species level by various biochemical tests as per conventional methods. Antibiotic sensitivity was done on Mueller Hinton agar by Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method. Vancomycin resistant isolates were further tested for minimum inhibitory concentration by E test. Results: Total number of clinical enterococcal isolates was 544, among which 82% was Enterococcus faecalis and 18%, Enterococcus faecium. Maximum number of isolates was from urine samples. Commonest age group affected was 21 – 30 years. Male: Female ratio was 1: 2.2. Maximum resistance was seen against gentamicin (58%), followed by co trimoxazole (49%), tetracycline (47%) and ampicillin (43%). Nitrofurantoin showed excellent activity against uropathogenic enterococci. Newer drugs like linezolid and tigecycline have got important role against multi drug resistant enterococcal infection. Conclusion: In our study, Enterococcus faecalis is a predominant species. There is a need for routine surveillance of susceptibility pattern of enterococcal infections as they remain a significant clinical problem.