BACKGROUND: Intensive care units (ICU) are multidisciplinary departments where patients with life-threatening diseases, major surgical interventions, respiratory failure, coma condition, hemodynamic insufficiency, and ≥1 organ failure are admitted for relevant diagnoses and treatment.
AIM: The present study sought to investigate pathogens causing infections in patients admitted to our respiratory ICU and their antibiotic resistance patterns.
MATERİALS and METHOD: The antibiogram results and clinical data of all patient samples submitted between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2010, were retrospectively reviewed.
RESULT: In total, 248 patients with 561 culture results were included in the study. Microbial growth was detected in the following samples: blood, 336 (59.9%); deep tracheal aspirate, 104 (18.6%); urine, 89 (15.9%); wound drain, 12 (2.1%); central venous catheter liquid, 7 (1.3%); phlegm, 10 (1.8%); Foley tip liquid, 1 (0.2%); and pleural effusion, and 1 (0.2%). Rapid growth was most frequently noted in the cultures of coagulase-negative staphylococci (25.3%), Acinetobacter spp. (23.1%), and Escherichia coli (12.6%).
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Descriptive statistics for continuous variables were expressed as means and standard deviations. The intermittent variables were converted into cross-tables and analyzed using Fisher’s exact and Pearson’s chi-square tests. The normal distribution of the study data was assessed using Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. The mean values of the variables were analyzed using Student’s t-test. Bidirectional hypotheses were used, and a p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Ver. 18.0 for Windows (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) software was used for statistical analyses.
IN CONCLUSION, the present study revealed microorganisms’ resistance profiles similar to those of other relevant studies. The study provides important insights into the selection of empiric antibiotic therapy for patients admitted in intensive care unit.
Keywords: respiratory intensive care unit, intensive care infections, antibiotic resistance, antibiotic susceptibility