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Hospital-reported pneumococcal susceptibility to penicillin
Joshua P Metlay1, Charles C Branas, Neil O Fishman
1VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. jmetlay@cceb.med.upenn.edu
Emerging Infectious Diseases
|April 14, 2004
Summary
Hospital Streptococcus pneumoniae susceptibility data varied widely, showing no correlation with location or time. This highlights the unreliability of individual hospital antibiograms for guiding pneumonia treatment decisions.
Area of Science:
- Infectious Diseases
- Microbiology
- Public Health
Background:
- Geographic variation in Streptococcus pneumoniae drug susceptibility impacts pneumonia treatment guidelines.
- The reliability of individual hospital antibiograms for clinical decision-making remains uncertain.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the geographic and temporal variability of hospital-reported penicillin susceptibility rates for Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Main Methods:
- Surveyed 52 acute adult care hospitals in the Philadelphia region.
- Collected data on penicillin susceptibility of pneumococcal blood isolates from 1998 to 2000.
- Analyzed variability across hospitals and over time.
Main Results:
- In 1998, pneumococcal nonsusceptibility to penicillin ranged from 0% to 67% across hospitals.
- No significant correlation was found between hospital location and reported pneumococcal susceptibility (p = 0.8).
- No significant temporal correlation in penicillin susceptibility was observed within individual hospitals over the 3-year period.
Conclusions:
- Hospital-reported Streptococcus pneumoniae susceptibility data exhibit significant variability.
- Geographic location and time do not reliably predict susceptibility patterns within hospitals.
- Individual hospital antibiograms may not be valid for guiding empirical antibiotic therapy for community-acquired pneumonia.