Evaluation of Blood and Urine Culture Results Obtained in a University Hospital Emergency Department

The identification of emergency department patients at risk of bacteremia is of critical importance, and the culture method is considered the gold standard for diagnosis. Our study aimed to investigate adult patients admitted to the emergency department whose blood and urine cultures were taken with suspicion of bacteremia. In our study, we retrospectively analyzed the data of adult patients who were admitted to Balikesir University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, between February 2020 and October 2024 and whose blood and urine cultures were taken by emergency physicians to test for bacteremia. The mean age of the 991 patients included in the study was 60.9 years. The most common diagnosis was urinary tract infection (36.8%). Bacterial growth was detected in 398 of the 1296 samples included in the study. While growth was observed in 302 (35.4%) of the 853 urine samples, growth was detected in 96 of 443 blood cultures. Ciprofloxacin was the most resistant antibiotic, and amikacin was the most sensitive to the E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates taken from the urine cultures. K. pneumoniae isolates were more resistant to all antibiotics than E. coli isolates. We suggest that guidelines for empirical antibiotic treatment be developed by evaluating aggregated data on bacteremia from healthcare institutions, and that limitations in antibiotic selection by emergency physicians be implemented, as these may enable patients to access appropriate antibiotics more quickly.