Hospital Acquired Antibiotic-Resistant Acinetobacter Baumannii Infections in a 400-Bed Hospital in Tehran, Iran

OBJECTIVES: Acinetobacter baumannii is an omnipresent pathogen known as a major agent in healthcare and nosocomoal-associated infections. Its ability to develop resistant pattern to the major and broad spectrum antibiotics is an important issue to be studied. METHODS: In this study, 101 strains of Acinetobacter baumannii were isolated from the hospitalized patients during July 2007 to June 2009 in one teaching hospital in the southern Tehran. The identification of Acinetobacter baumannii and resistant pattern was performed by using conventional bacteriological methods and Clinical Laboratory and Standards Institute (CLSI). RESULTS: Respiratory tract specimens were the most common place of Acinetobacter isolation. The organism was resistant to ceftazidime (96%), ceftizoxime (95%), ceftriaxone (93%), amikacin (58%), gentamicin (68%), co-terimoxazole (85%), and ciprofloxacin (85%). This pattern also pointed that imipenem had the lowest resistance rate (9%). CONCLUSIONS: Susceptibility rates of Acinetobacter baumannii isolates to third-generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, amikacin, gentamicin, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (SXT) were very low and the rate of resistant Acinetobacter baumannii to imipenem was significant. It would be a good idea to consider surveillance of antibiotic usage and restriction of using broad spectrum antibiotics before development of resistance to these agents.