Research article PREVALANCE AND ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY PATTERN OF CLINICAL ISOLATES OF PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL

The study was conducted to know the prevalence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in clinical infections and its antibiotic susceptibility pattern to commonly used antibiotics in a tertiary care teaching hospital. We received 897 relevant clinical isolates among, which 203 was P.aeruginosa. Antibiotic susceptibility was determined by Kirby Bauer's disc diffusion method with first line and second line antibiotics. Results - Among the first line antibiotics the isolate displayed an increased resistance to Ciprofloxacin (28.57%) followed by Levofloxacin (25.61%), and the least was towards Amikacin (14.77%), whereas most of the second line antibiotics such as Polymyxin B and Colistin exhibited a high sensitivity (99.02 %.). Conclusion-The ability of the opportunistic pathogen P.aeruginosa to rapidly develop resistance to multiple classes of antibiotics during the course of treatment makes it important to determine the antibiotic susceptibility pattern. As the pipeline of new drugs continues to diminish, it is critical that we look for new strategies to combat the threat of antibacterial resistance.