In vitro activity of colistin against Stenotrophomonas maltophilia

Colistin is one of the few antimicrobials that retains activity against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. However, the emergence of colistin resistance has been described recently. The aims of this study were to determine the activity of colistin against isolates of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. In total, 641 S. maltophilia clinical isolates were obtained from single patients admitted to a university hospital in Buenos Aires city, Argentina, between the years 1996 and 2013. Susceptibility to colistin was determined by the agar dilution method. An increase in colistin resistance from 8% in 1996 to 45% in 2013 was observed, which correlated with a marked increase in colistin consumption of 11.4-fold during the same period.