Antimicrobial resistance in Enterococcus faecalis at a tertiary care centre of northern India

Multiresistant enterococci are emerging as a leading nosocomial pathogen. Knowledge of the profile of antimicrobial resistance is essential to formulate treatment guidelines for infections caused by enterococci. This study reports the antimicrobial sensitivity of enterococci isolated during a one year period from clinical samples of patients admitted to a teriary care hospital of Delhi.

A total of 444 isolates of Enterococcus faecalis were screened for antimicrobial susceptibility by the disk diffusion technique as recommended by the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS). Screening for vancomycin resistance was done by the vancomycin screen agar method recommended by NCCLS, which was confirmed by determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) using microbroth dilution and E-test methods. Vancomycin resistance phenotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction.

A total of 115 (26%) isolates had high level aminoglycoside resistance, 293 (66%) were resistant to ampicillin, 391 (88%) to ciprofloxacin and 377 (85%) to erythromycin. Vancomycin resistance was found in five (1%) isolates, of which four had van A phenotype and one had van B phenotype.

Emergence of vancomycin resistant enterococci is of concern due to the limited therapeutic options. Implementation of infection control measures can contain the spread of these resistant bacteria.