Prevalence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Profile of Gram-negative and Gram-positive Bacteria in a Tertiary Hospital: A Retrospective Study

Background: To address the growing threat of drug-resistant organisms, it's crucial to establish effective stewardship programs. However, before doing so, it's vital to ensure access to evidence-based information on the local emergence of antibiotic resistance. Objective: The current study aims to determine the frequency of pathogens at one of Cairo University Hospitals and detect the antibiotic resistance profile of bacterial pathogens recovered from various sites of infections. Methodology: A three-year retrospective study was conducted (January 2020 and December 2022). We examined the information from the microbiology laboratory's Laboratory Data Manager, including the antimicrobial resistance profiles of pathogens isolated and identified from microbiological samples sent for routine culture. Results: Gram-negative isolates were more prevalent than Gram-positive ones. The most prevalent isolated pathogens were Klebsiella spp., Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas spp., and Coagulase-negative Staphylococci. Among Gram-negative organisms, more than 80% resistance was towards ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, and cefepime, while tigecycline showed the least resistance (19.15%). While, among Gram-positive organisms, vancomycin showed the least resistance (2.12%), and linezolid displayed minimal resistance (5.2%). Conclusions: Most of the investigated bacteria have become resistant to most antibiotics. This indicates an impending disaster that might threaten the future medical profession and needs extreme caution and continuous monitoring. Supporting local and national surveillance programs with ongoing monitoring of antimicrobial resistance patterns at the national and regional levels is a crucial step in the fight against emerging antimicrobial resistance. These findings imply that hospital resources should be the primary focus of efforts to reduce antibiotic resistance.