Antibiotic resistance of microbial strains isolated from Korean acne patients

Over several decades, topical and systemic antibiotics have been the mainstay of treatment for acne vulgaris. The widespread and long-term use of antibiotics in the treatment of acne has resulted in the spread of resistant bacterial strains and treatment failure. We aimed to examine the bacteriology of acne vulgaris and to evaluate its susceptibility to the antibiotics widely used for acne in Korea. We examined the species of bacteria aerobically and anaerobically isolated from 100 Korean acne patients. Among the bacteria isolated, Staphylococcus epidermidis (36 patients) was the most common, followed by Propionibacterium acnes (30 patients). Eleven strains of P. acnes (36.7%) and 25 strains of S. epidermidis (69.4%) were resistant to one or other of the antibiotics tested. A higher proportion of P. acnes isolates were resistant to clindamycin (30%) and erythromycin (26.7%), than to any other antibiotics tested (P = 0.0003). Some S. epidermidis isolates were resistant to tetracycline and doxycycline in addition to clindamycin and erythromycin. In the previous studies, few strains of P. acnes were found to be resistant to any of the antibiotics, but this study shows that antibiotic-resistant strains have been increasing in Korea acne patients.