• Mubashir A Khan and Aftab Faiz.
• Professor Mubashir Ahmad Khan, Umm Al Qura University, Laboratory Medicine, PO Box 7607 Makkah 2195, Saudi Arabia, T: 0509010825, F: 012-5270000-4227, mubashirpmrc@yahoo.com.
• Ann Saudi Med. 2016 Jan 1; 36 (1): 23-8.

BackgroundThe clinical significance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa has greatly increased due to its ability to rapidly develop resistance to major groups of antibiotics.ObjectivesOur objective was to determine the pattern of antimicrobial resistance of P aeruginosa.DesignProspective, descriptive study.SettingFour tertiary care hospitals in Makkah and Jeddah.MethodsClinical isolates of P aeruginosa were processed following standard microbiological procedures. A Microscan Walk Away system was used for the identification and antibiotic susceptibility of P aeruginosa isolates.Main Outcome MeasuresPercentage of resistance of P aeruginosa to antibiotics.ResultsThe overall drug resistance among 121 strains of P aeruginosa was low to moderate to commonly used anti-pseudomonal drugs (4.9% to 30.6%). Significantly less resistance was exhibited by piperacillin tazobactam (4.9%; P < .05) and meropenem showed significantly high resistance (30.6%; P < .05) as compared to other antibiotics, followed by ticarcillin (22.3%) and imipenem (19%), irrespective of the site of infection. The antibiotics with < 10% resistance were cefepime (8.3%), amikacin (7.4%) and piperacillin-tazobactam, which showed lowest resistance (4.9%). Although, data varied between hospitals, meropenem and ticarcillin had the highest drug resistance in all hospitals. Multidrug resistance was 10.7%.ConclusionLow-to-moderate rates of drug resistance among P aeruginosa isolates were observed. Meropenem resistance was high irrespective of the site of infection. This pattern of resistance indicates probable overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics like carbapenems. Overuse needs to be addressed by each institution, and consideration given to regulating use of broad-spectrum antibiotics.LimitationsResults cannot be generalized as the study did not include all tertiary hospitals in these cities.

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