Analysis of Blood Cultures of Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department in a Tertiary Healthcare Hospital in Mumbai

Aim and objectives: Analysis of blood cultures taken from patients attending emergency departments is an important exercise in determining the common pathogens prevalent in the region. The distribution of these infective pathogens keeps changing over time, and the rise in antimicrobial-resistant pathogens makes it difficult to routinely conduct effective empirical broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy. This study aimed to analyse the results of blood cultures obtained from patients presenting to the Emergency Department of a Tertiary Healthcare Hospital in Mumbai and provide updated and detailed information on the distribution of causative pathogens in adult sepsis and study their antibiotic-susceptibility pattern. Materials and methods: A hospital-based prospective cross-sectional study of 121 positive blood culture reports was conducted at the Department of Emergency Medicine, Fortis Hospital Mulund, Mumbai, which included all adult (age > 18 yrs) suspected sepsis patients arriving to the Emergency Department whose blood cultures were sent from the Emergency Department from January 2021 to December 2021. Results: The study showed that mean age of the study cases was 59.3 years with 59.5% cases that belonged to the elderly age group with a male predominance (56.2% males–43.8% females). Overall, Gram-negative isolates were seen in 95% cases, while Gram-positive isolates were seen in only 1.7% cases. The most common organism isolated from cases with sepsis was Escherichia coli (45.5%) followed by Klebsiella (13.2%), Salmonella (10.7%), Stenotrophomonas (7.4%) and Pseudomonas (5%). Among Gram-positive organisms, Staphylococcus aureus was the most common organism isolated (1.7%). Escherichia coli isolates showed poor sensitivity towards fluoroquinolones and cephalosporins while good sensitivity towards aminoglycosides, carbapenems and combination drugs like Cefoperazone and Sulbactam and Piperacillin and Tazobactam. These findings suggest that Gram-negative organisms are the most common isolates observed in this study, with E. coli being the predominant pathogen followed by Klebsiella. High-level antimicrobial resistance was observed in sepsis cases for commonly used antimicrobials like fluoroquinolones and cephalosporins.