Clinical Scenario and Drug Resistance Patterns of Acinetobacter baumannii Isolates in Patients Attending a Tertiary Care Hospital

INTRODUCTION: Acinetobacter baumannii has been termed as an emerging pathogen which is involved in nosocomial infections mostly seen in Intensive Care Units (ICU). It has the ability to develop resistance to antibiotics which makes it difficult to treat. OBJECTIVES: To calculate the burden of Acinetobacter baumannii isolates from different clinical samples and also to determine drug resistance patterns METHODOLOGY: Clinical samples from January 2023 to December 2023 were processed and Acinetobacter baumannii isolates were identified by their colony morphology and biochemical reactions. The drug resistance patterns of these isolates were detected using different approved antibiotics by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion test as per the CLSI guidelines. RESULTS:1418 samples were culture positive for Gram negative bacteria out of which 296 (20.87%) constituted of Acinetobacter isolates. Of these, 252 (85.14%) belonged to ICU patients. Rest 44 (14.86%) non-ICU cases were from gynaecology, surgery and otorhinolaryngology wards. The antibiotic susceptibility testing of the Acinetobacter isolates showed multidrug resistant patterns with resistance to 3rd & 4th generation cephalosporins, quinolones, penicillin, carbapenems, aminoglycosides, macrolides. CONCLUSION: Acinetobacter baumannii is a significant pathogen in ICU patients with multidrug isolates increasing progressively due to indiscriminate use of antibiotics. This stresses upon the rational use of antibiotics and strict infection control practices as the need of the hour to control its progress. Keywords: Multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, Antibiotic susceptibility, ICU