title: Antimicrobial use and susceptibility rates in isolates from intensive care unit and other nosocomial inpatient and outpatient areas.
abstract: Our objective was to evaluate the relation between antimicrobial use and susceptibility in the intensive care unit (ICU) and non-ICU inpatient areas in the Bolzano regional hospital. For the isolates of S. aureus, coagulase negative staphylococci, Enterococcus sp., P. aeruginosa and E. coli we found a pattern of significant stepwise decrease in the frequency of antimicrobial susceptibility to penicilloic beta-lactam antibiotics and first generation cephalosporins; the highest senitivity rates occurred among isolates from outpatients, followed in decreasing order by rates among isolates from non-ICU inpatients and from ICU-patients; the rate of use of this group of antimicrobial agents was relatively high in the intensive care unit (13,1%). For P. aeruginosa we observed significantly lower susceptibility-rates to second, third and fourth generation cephalosporins, carbapenems and monobactams for non-ICU inpatient areas than for outpatient or ICU areas; this paralleled with the low use of this group of agents in the ICU area (4,9%). Also, for P. aeruginosa the prevalence of susceptibility to ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin in inpatient areas was lower than in the outpatient or ICU-areas; the rate of quinolone-use was relatively low in the ICU area (4,2%).
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology and Virology, Bolzano Regional Hospital, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Fina
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aschbacher
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zelger
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Paluselli
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rizza
mesh_terms: D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology; D015780:Carbapenems / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002511:Cephalosporins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000187:drug effects; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008997:Monobactams / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015995:Prevalence; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000187:drug effects; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D015780:Carbapenems; D002511:Cephalosporins; D008997:Monobactams