Common Organisms and Their Drug Resistance Patterns in Endotracheal Aspirate Samples of Patients With Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia: A Retrospective Observational Study
Retrospective observational study reveals high drug resistance among dominant pathogens in ventilator-associated pneumonia, highlighting the need for targeted antimicrobial stewardship.
Key Points
To assess the frequency of bacterial isolates and evaluate their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in adult ICU patients diagnosed with ventilator-associated pneumonia.
Conducted a single-center retrospective, cross-sectional observational study from January to December 2024 in a tertiary care ICU in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Included adult patients (≥18 years, N=224) exhibiting new-onset pneumonia symptoms at least 48 hours following endotracheal intubation.
Cultured endotracheal aspirates and determined antimicrobial susceptibility via the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method following CLSI M100 34th edition (2024) guidelines.
Acinetobacter species (47/224, 21.0%; 95% CI: 16.2–26.8) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (46/224, 20.5%; 95% CI: 15.8–26.3) were the most frequent isolates, followed by Escherichia coli (36/224, 16.1%; 95% CI: 11.8–21.4) and Enterobacter species (35/224, 15.6%; 95% CI: 11.5–21.0).
Isolates exhibited marked resistance across multiple beta-lactam agents, while polymyxin showed the highest overall in vitro susceptibility.
Distribution of bacterial organisms varied descriptively across age groups without reaching statistical significance (χ²(8) = 7.98, p = 0.435).