Antimicrobial resistance surveillance among patients with sepsis in intensive care units of a tertiary care center

Background: Rising antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rate is a challenge for treating patients in health-care settings globally. Most intensive care unit (ICU) patients are frequently on antimicrobial agents; this induces selective antibiotic pressure and increases the threat of the development of AMR. The objective of this study was to document the microbiological profile and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the isolates from blood culture-confirmed cases of sepsis from ICUs at a tertiary care center. Materials and Methods: A retrospective data collection was conducted after obtaining a waiver of consent from the institute ethics committee. A total of 151 patients, aged 18 years and above, admitted to the ICUs between January and December 2019 with blood culture-proven sepsis were included in the study. Data on demographic details, ICU stay, underlying risk factors, infecting organisms, and antimicrobial susceptibility reports were collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Results: A total of 1020 clinically suspected sepsis patients were admitted to the ICUs during the study period. Of these, 151 patients (14.8%) had blood culture-proven sepsis. Gram-negative bacteria were the most frequent isolates (63.6%), among which Escherichia coli was the most common pathogen (25%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (15%), and Acinetobacter baumannii (13.6%). The rate of resistance was more against cephalosporins as compared to carbapenems and tigecycline. Commonly documented gram-positive bacterial isolates were coagulase-negative staphylococci (8.6%), viridans streptococci (7.1%), and Staphylococcus aureus (5%). About 65.2% of penicillin-resistance and 15.8% of methicillin-resistant staphylococci were documented. Conclusion: This study on AMR was useful to know the prevalence of sepsis among ICU inpatients and the microbiological profile with their AMR pattern in our tertiary care hospital. This may help to generate local antibiograms which may further contribute to formulating the national data. Based on available antibiogram data, the choice of antibiotics for empiric treatment becomes easier. It may also guide the clinicians to escalate or de-escalate the antibiotics wherever possible.