Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in a general intensive care unit in Saudi Arabia.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the prevalence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria causing infections in patients at the intensive care units (ICUs) of Riyadh Military Hospital (RMH), as well as their antimicrobial resistance patterns for one year.


METHODS
A retrospective, cohort investigation was performed. Laboratory records from January to December 2009 were studied for the prevalence of MDR Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and their antimicrobial resistance in ICU patients from RMH, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.


RESULTS
A total of 1210 isolates were collected from various specimens such as: respiratory (469), blood (400), wound/tissue (235), urinary (56), nasal swabs (35), and cerebro-spinal fluid (15). Regardless of the specimen, there was a high rate of nosocomial MDR organisms isolated from patients enrolled in the General ICU (GICU) in Riyadh. Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) comprised 40.9%, Klebsiella pneumonia (K. pneumonia) - 19.4%, while Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) formed 16.3% of these isolates.


CONCLUSIONS
The P. aeruginosa, A. baumannii, K. pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus (methycillin sensitive and methycillin resistant), and Staphylococccus coagulase negative are the most common isolates recovered from clinical specimens in the GICU of RMH. Respiratory tract specimens represented nearly 39% of all the specimens collected in the ICU. The most common MDR organisms isolated in this unit were A. baumannii, and K. pneumoniae.
Microbiology Department, King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. nkamalh@hotmail.com
Nermin K
NK
Saeed
Abdulmageed M
AM
Kambal
Noura A
NA
El-Khizzi
D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012529:Saudi Arabia