Evaluation of the Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern and Distribution of Strains Isolated from Adult Patients with Lower Respiratory Tract Infection at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Western Turkey

In this study, we observed that Gram-negative bacteria were more common than Gram-positive bacteria in lower respiratory tract samples. The multidrug resistance rate in <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i>, <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>, and <i>Acinetobacter baumannii</i> isolates is detected as 59%, 12.9%, and 96.4%, respectively. Carbapenem resistance rates for <i>K. pneumoniae</i> (<i>n</i> = 261), <i>A. baumannii</i> (<i>n</i> = 250), and <i>P. aeruginosa</i> (<i>n</i> = 132) were 88.9%, 97.2%, and 43.2%, respectively. The multidrug resistance and carbapenem resistance rates detected in lower respiratory tract samples in our study are alarming. It is noteworthy that the resistance rates we found are higher than the rates reported in other studies conducted in our country.