Multidrug Resistance Gram-negative Bacteria in Intensive Care Unit of Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive...

Antimicrobial resistance is global health problem, amongst major causes for mortality. It is one of the hinderance for achievement of Sustainable Goal 3 (Good health and well-being) of World Health Organization. Multidrug resistant gram negative bacteria are major threat to humanity especially patients admitted in intensive care unit. This is associated with to treatment failure and mortality of the patients in intensive care unit. Therefore, this study was conducted to find out the prevalence of multidrug resistant gram negative bacteria in intensive care unit of tertiary care center.

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Microbiology of a tertiary care hospital from February, 2020 to August, 2021 for 18 months after obtaining ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee (Reference Number: 246). All the samples from Intensive Care Unit were processed following standard methodology. Only gram-negative bacteria isolated from samples were included in the study. Convenience sampling method was used. The point estimate was calculated at 95% Confidence Interval. Data was entered in Microsoft Excel 2016 and analysis was done using IBM SPSS Statistics version 16.0.

Out of 500 samples, 380 (76%) showed growth of gram negative bacteria. The prevalence multidrug resistance was 316 (83.15%). The multidrug resistant bacteria isolates were Acinetobacter species 43 (100%), non fermenter 57 (95%) and Escherichia coli 129 (87.16%). Multidrug resistant isolates were least resistant towards carbapenem group of antibiotics.

The prevalence of multidrug resistant gram negative bacteria was found to be similar to other studies. Susceptibility towards commonly used both oral and intravenous antibiotics was low.