[Statistical observation of urinary tract infections by Serratia marcescens]

Recently, in many institutions, Serratia marcescens has been isolated more frequently. Therefore, we made a statistical analysis of S. marcescens infections. S. marcescens was isolated from the urine of 327 of the 1,773 patients admitted to our Department between 1975 and 1981. S. marcescens was the most frequently isolated organism in the urine of both inpatients and outpatients all of the 7 years. S. marcescens was often isolated in patients with some underlying disease, elderly patients or postoperative patients, in which case the individual defense mechanism protecting the patient from infections is often low. Because 276 of the patients who had S. marcescens infection had urethral indwelling catheters, S. marcescens infection may be nosocomial. The most effective antibiotic against S. marcescens was chloramphenicol followed by amikacin, sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, and fosfomycin. The effectiveness of gentamycin, dibekacin and kanamycin was not as high as expected.