Study of the prevalence of ESKAPE pathogens and their resistance to antimicrobial drugs

A prospective microbiological study of the prevalence of ESKAPE microorganisms and antibiotic resistance rates of strains was conducted in patients of the pediatric cardiac surgery department of a highly specialized clinic in the period from 2019 to 2023. During the study, classical routine bacterial methods for identifying isolates were used, as well as the automated system for final identification and susceptibility testing Vitek 2 - Compact. The study included 3725 clinical samples, the frequency of pathogen detection was: S.aureus 35.2%, K.pneumoniae 27.3%, A.baumannii 14.5%, Ps.aeruginosa 12.4%, Enterobacter sp. 8.7% and Enterococcus faecium 1.2%. A significant increase in resistance was detected in MRSA from 13.7% to 41.9% (p = 0.041), in K.pneumoniae, resistance to carbapenems increased from 0% to 8.3% (p = 0.057), while we note a decrease in the prevalence of ESBL-producing strains of K.pneumoniae from 63.3%. to 45.2% (p=0.058), resistance to carbapenems in P.aeruginosa strains decreased from 64.3% to 37.7% (p=0.037), and in A.baumannii from 48.5% to 19.1% (p=0.039). According to the obtained results, in our pediatric cardiac surgery department, ESKAPE pathogens accounted for 64.2%. The most common isolates were S.aureus, K.pneumoniae and A.baumannii, while there was a sharply increasing trend towards resistance of K.pneumoniae to carbapenems and MRSA. Our results showed that well-designed infection control in each hospital is necessary, including a good hygiene strategy, microbiological monitoring and in-hospital control. Keywords: microbiological monitoring, ESKAPE microorganisms, prevalence, antibiotic resistance, pediatric cardiac surgery.