• Igor Francetić, Smilja Kalenić, Mirjana Huić, Iveta Mercep, Ksenija Makar-Ausperger, Robert Likić, Viktorija Erdeljić, Vesna Tripković, and Petra Simić.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Zagreb University Hospital Center, Kispaticeva 12, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia. ifran@mef.hr
• Croat. Med. J. 2008 Apr 1; 49 (2): 207-14.

AimTo determine the effect of aminoglycoside cycling in six tertiary intensive care units (ICU) on the rates of sepsis, aminoglycoside resistance patterns, antibiotic consumption, and costs.MethodsThis was a prospective longitudinal interventional study that measured the effect of change from first-line gentamicin usage (February 2002-February 2003) to amikacin usage (February 2003-February 2004) on the aminoglycoside resistance patterns, number of patients with gram-negative bacteremia, consumption of antibiotics, and the cost of antimicrobial drugs in 6 tertiary care ICUs in Zagreb, Croatia.ResultsThe change from first-line gentamicin to amikacin usage led to a decrease in the overall gentamicin resistance of gram-negative bacteria (GNB) from 42% to 26% (P<0.001; z-test of proportions) and netilmicin resistance from 33% to 20% (P<0.001), but amikacin resistance did not change significantly (P=0.462), except for Acinetobacter baumanni (P=0.014). Sepsis rate in ICUs was reduced from 3.6% to 2.2% (P<0.001; chi(2) test), with a decline in the number of nosocomial bloodstream infections from 55/100 patient-days to 26/100 patient-days (P=0.001, chi(2) test). Furthermore, amikacin use led to a 16% decrease in the overall antibiotic consumption and 0.1 euro/patient/d cost reduction.ConclusionExclusive use of amikacin significantly reduced the resistance of GNB isolates to gentamicin and netilmicin, the number of GNB nosocomial bacteremias, and the cost of total antibiotic usage in ICUs.

31 keywords...

hide…