Antibiotic Resistance: Experience in Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Objective: We retrospectively evaluated the culture results of patients hospitalized in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at our hospital during 2008. Material and methods: In this study, the cultures results of the patients were analyzed. Identification of bacteria was performed by conventional methods and antibiotic susceptibility tests were done using disc diffusion method according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Results: 222 materials sent from 5-bed PICU and 5-bed NICU consisted of 135 (61%) tracheal aspirates, 46 (21%) blood cultures, 21 (10%) urine cultures, 6 (3%) catheter tip cultures, 6 (3%) eye secretion cultures, and 8 (4%) other materials. Pseudomonas spp. were the most frequently isolated bacteria (33%). Carbapenem resistance was not detected for Enterobacteriaceae species and was very low for nonfermentative bacteria. Ciprofloxacin resistance was low and cephoperazone-sulbactam resistance was not detected for Acinetobacter species. Conclusion: Our ICUs are new and patient circulation is low due to long hospitalization period caused by underlying conditions of patients. The well-trained staff and effective infection consultation, along with the previously mentioned facts, resulted in low antibiotic resistance rates and absence of panresistant bacteria.