Prevalence and bacterial susceptibility of hospital acquired urinary tract infection

ABSTRACT – Purpose: Urinary tract infection is the most common nosocomially acquired infection. It is important to know theetiology and antibiotic susceptibility infectious agents to guide the initial empirical treatment. Objective: To determine theprevalence of bacterial strains and their antibiotic susceptibility in nosocomially acquired urinary tract infection in a universityhospital between January and June 2003. Methods: We analyzed the data of 188 patients with positive urine culture (= 10 5 colony-forming units/mL) following a period of 48 hours after admission. Results: Half of patients were male. Mean age was 50.26 ± 22.7 (SD), range 3 months to 88 years. Gram-negative bacteria were the agent in approximately 80% of cases. The most commonpathogens were E. coli (26%), Klebsiella sp . (15%), P. aeruginosa (15%) and Enterococcus sp . (11%). The overall bacteria susceptibilityshowed that the pathogens were more sensible to imipenem (83%), second or third generation cephalosporin and aminoglycosides; andwere highly resistant to ampicillin (27%) and cefalothin (30%). It is important to note the low susceptibility to ciprofloxacin (42%)and norfloxacin (43%).