Frequency of Occurrence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Bacterial Pathogens Associated with Skin and Soft Tissue Infections During 1997 from an International Surveillance Programme

Abstract

The SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme was established to provide a coordinated, standardised, international surveillance on antimicrobial resistance. In one part of the programme, isolates from skin and soft tissue infections sent from 20 hospitals in 12 different European countries were investigated in the European coordinating centre. Of 1013 isolates, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were the most significant species, constituting almost 50% of the referred isolates. Methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus averaged 22% across Europe, only slightly less than that in isolates derived from blood. Less than 5% of the enterococcal isolates were resistant to vancomycin. Piperacillin/tazobactam was the most active penicillin-derived beta-lactam compound against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, inhibiting 91.3% of the isolates, while ceftazidime and cefepime were the most active cephalosporins, inhibiting 85.8% and 80.3% of the isolates, respectively. Putative extended-spectrum beta-lactamase production was not detected in Escherichia coli and was found in only 5.1% of the Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. In general, strains of the family Enterobacteriaceae remained mostly susceptible to carbapenems, cefepime, and amikacin.

Randomized Comparison of Linezolid (PNU-100766) versus Oxacillin-Dicloxacillin for Treatment of Complicated Skin and Soft Tissue Infections

“…Historically, oxacillin has been a drug of choice for many gram-positive skin and soft tissue infections (27). However, the emergence of multidrugresistant gram-positive species, particularly MRSA, is an increasing concern; in recent surveys in the United States and Europe, methicillin resistance has been observed in 22 to 25% of S. aureus isolates from patients with skin and soft tissue infections (5,13). Although patients with MRSA were excluded from this study, the increasing prevalence of resistant gram-positive pathogens suggests that many patients will require treatment with an antimicrobial that has activity against these resistant strains.…”

European Status of Resistance in Nosocomial Infections

“…Imipenem was the most active ␤ -lactam compound tested, with 90.2% of the isolates being susceptible. Susceptibility to meropenem, ceftazidime and cefepime was 85.4, 41.5 and 48.8%, respectively [19] . Aminoglycosides are widely used for the treatment of Acinetobacter infections, and increasing numbers of highly resistant strains have been reported since the late 1970s.…”

Safety and Efficacy of Tigecycline in Treatment of Skin and Skin Structure Infections: Results of a Double-Blind Phase 3 Comparison Study with Vancomycin-Aztreonam

“…Organisms isolated from baseline cultures were considered to be the primary baseline isolate based on the frequency with which those organisms are identified in the particular disease state (13,(17)(18)(19)37). Safety evaluation.…”