Susceptibility of escherichia coli strains isolated from urine cultures to some commonly used antibacterial agents

Objectives: The present study was designed to determine the bacteria causing urinary tract infections (UTI) in our hospital and their susceptibility to various antibiotics. Study Design: Susceptibility of 259 uropathogen Escherichia Coli (E.Coli) isolates from urine samples of patients treated in the wards and intensive care units or in the outpatient clinics of our hospital between March 2004 and February 2005, to ampicillin, amoxycillin-clavulanate, gentamicin, ceftriaxone, ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, co-trimoxazole, and naliclixic acid, the most commonly used antibiotics in UTI, Were evaluated. Among the isolated strains, 63 were from nosocomial and 196 were from community acquired UTI. Identification and susceptibility of strains were determined by an automatized VITEK-1 panel (Biomerieux, France). Results: Comparison of antibiotic susceptibility rates between nosocomial and community-acquired UTI revealed the following results: ampicillin 63-32%, amoxycillin-clavulanate 78-58%, gentamicin 89-83%, ceftriaxone 94-89%, ofloxacin 82-59%, ciprofloxacin 81-54%, cotrimoxazole 71-47%, naliclixic acid 86-64%, nosocomial and community-acquired UTI, respectively. Conclusion: In our opinion, for our region, ciprofloxacin would be the appropriate option for ampiric therapy in patients with probable community-acquired UTI and ampiric parenteral treatment with ceftriaxone would be the appropriate first option in patients with probable nosocomial UTI.