OpenLB
Open Library of Bioscience

One of the major causes leading to increased antibiotic resistance is excess antimicrobial consumption. We have analysed the correlation between antibiotic use and frequency of carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA) strains in the general intensive care unit of a university hospital Antibiotic use was expressed as number DDD (daily defined doses)/100 occupied hospital bed-days (BD). CRPA incidence rates were determined by number of unique isolates reported to 100,000 BD. The average use of antibiotics between January and August 2008 was 174 DDD/100 BD. The first four most frequently prescribed antibiotics were as follows: first and second generation cephalosporins (47 DDD/100 BD), carbapenemns (29 DDD/100 BD), fluoroquinolones (26 DDD/100 BD) and glycopeptids (20 DDD/100 BD). Average monthly incidence rate of CRPA was 546/100,000 BD (319-773/100,000 BD. CI 95%). There was a correlation between CRPA incidence rate and carbapenem plus fluoroquinolone use (Pearson coefficient of correlation r = 0.7, p < 0.05). Our data showed that the evolution of CRPA incidence rates was related to carbapenem and fluoroquinolone use.