The Pattern of Antimicrobial Resistance of Enterococci: A Hospital-Based Study in Iran

Abstract

Enterococci have emerged as important opportunistic microorganisms in nasocomial infections; mean- while inappropriate use of antibiotics has led to change of the antibiotic resistance pattern in enterococcus spe- cies.Aim: The purpose of the study was to determine the pattern of antibiotic resistance among enterococcus spe- cies in an Iranian hospital.Material and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from April to October 2013. All clinical samples were collected from intensive care unit (ICU) and general wards of Khatam- ol-Anbia hospital, Tehran. All enterococcus species were detected by biochemical tests. Antimicrobial susceptibil- ity and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) were determined by disc diffusion and Epsilometer test (E test) methods. Spss version 16 was used for descriptive statistics.Results: 48 enterococcus species were isolated from clinical samples of blood, urine, wound, sputum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The isolated enterococcus species were include 72.9% faecalis, 22.9% faecium and 4.2% other species. The results of E-test revealed that they were resistant to imipenem (54%), ampicillin (68%), co-trimoxazole (100%), gentamicin (93.8%), rifampin (60.4%), van- comycin (39.6%), linezolid (0%) and teicoplanin (29.2%). Among strains of enterococci, Faecium (90.9%) and fae- calis (20%) were resistant to vancomycin.Conclusion: According to the findings, antibiotic resistance patterns are changed and vancomycine-resistance especially among faecium is rising in nosocomial infection.