Etiologia e resistência bacteriana em unidades de terapia intensiva através de culturas de vigilância

Abstract

The existence of pathogens with high antimicrobial resistance, colonizing the skin and mucous membranes of hospitalized patients, increases the risk of serious infections. Thus surveillance cultures are important to identify these microorganisms and minimize their propagation to other individuals. This research used surveillance cultures to determine the resistance profile existent in bacteria colonizing 114 patients admitted in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) for 7 or more days. For this purpose, manual methods of phenotypic identification, antimicrobial susceptibility and phenotypic tests for the indication of β-lactamase’ production were used. From the Staphylococcus spp. isolated, 89% (98/110) were resistant to oxacillin, 39% (52/133) of Enterobacteriaceae were producers of Extended Spectrum β-Lactamases, 57.5% (23/40) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were producers of AmpC β-Lactamase and 81% (30/37) of Acinetobacter spp. were resistant to carbapenems. Among the studied clinical variables, it was found a significant statistical association between the use of carbapenems and colonization by bacteria resistant to these antibiotics. These high indexes reflect the current epidemiological tendency of high resistant bacteria growth, making essential the implementation of surveillance measures, isolation and rationalization of antibiotic use to minimize the dissemination of these pathogens.