Antibiotic consumption and faecal bacterial susceptibility in surgical in-patients

A one-day prevalence study of resistance of faecal bacteria to 19 antibacterial agents was performed in 144 surgical inpatients. Most of the drug-resistant isolates were of aerobic and anaerobic species commonly seen in infections, which indicates that surveys of faecal flora can yield rapid information on local patterns of drug resistance in pathogens relevant to abdominal infection. In faecal bacteria the drug resistance pattern only weakly reflected the local antibiotic consumption. The amount of administered aminoglycosides was relatively small, and no gentamicin-resistant aerobes were found. Absence of resistance was found also for some of the newer agents not yet in clinical use (aztreonam, latamoxef, norfloxacin), but not for others (ceftazidime, ceftriaxone). Despite heavy use of fosfomycin and metronidazole, resistance had not emerged among aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, respectively. Imipenem was unique in inhibiting growth of all aerobic and anaerobic faecal bacteria, in the studied patients with the single exception of a strain of Enterobacter.