EPIDEMIOLOGIC SURVEY OF PSEUDOMONAS-AERUGINOSA SUSCEPTIBILITY TO ANTIBIOTICS

The susceptibility to antibiotics of 1367 non-replicate strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated at Beaujon Hospital between 1990 and 1992 was investigated and compared with the serogroup O and the strain origin (ward, sample). Five betalactam resistance patterns were distinguished according to susceptibility to ticarcillin, piperacillin, ceftazidime and aztreonam, 1 = SSSS, 2 = RRSS, 3 = RRRR, 4 = RSSR, 5 RRSR. The other antibiotics studied were imipenem, tobramycin, amikacin, ciprofloxacin and fosfomycin. Resistance to all antibiotics, fosfomycin excepted, was higher in intensive care units than in other wards. The respective frequencies of the phenotypes were : 70,3 %, 4,3 %, 11,8 %, 10,2 % and 3,4 %. The frequency of pattern 3 steadily increased between 1990 and 1992 at the expense of pattern 1, whereas patterns 2, 4 and 5 remained stable. The most common serogroups were 06 (15,8 %), O11 (14,5 %) and O1 (9,9 %). The O11 strains were more widespread in intensive care units than in other wards and were more resistant to antibiotics. Most of the O12 strains displayed pattern 2 and were highly resistant to antibiotics.