Bacteriological Profile and Antimicrobial Sensitivity Pattern in Sterile Body Fluids from a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Sterile body sites, if infected by micro-organisms than it can lead to severe morbidity and mortality. Therefore early diagnosis and prompt initiation of empiric treatment is necessary. Aim: This study was done to evaluate causative organisms of sterile body site infections and their antimicrobial sensitivity pattern in a tertiary care hospital, New Delhi. Settings and design: Prospective study over a period of one year from January 2015 to December 2015. Material and methods: Sterile body fluid specimens were processed for bacterial culture according to the standard procedures and antimicrobial susceptibility test for isolated organisms was done using agar disk diffusion method. Results: Amongst 405 samples, 122 fluids samples showed growth of organisms with an isolation rate of 30%. Isolates from different fluids were E. coli (28.6%), Acinetobacter spp. (27%), Klebseilla spp. (19.6%), Staphylococcus aureus (10.6%), Enterococcus spp. (7.3%), Pseudomonas spp. (4.9%) and Citrobacter spp. (1.6%). Gram negative isolates were mostly sensitive to carbepenems, colistin and polymyxin B (100%) and gram positive isolates were highly sensitive to vancomycin (100%), linezolid (100%) and ciprofloxacin (70%). Acinetobacter was the most resistant pathogens to many antibiotics. About 38.5% of S. aureus isolates in our study were MRSA. Conclusion: Therefore, knowledge of bacteriological and antimicrobial profile of sterile body fluids is important so that such life threatening infections can be treated effectively on an urgent basis.