Clinical Profile of Patients With Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Patterns of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: A Cross-sectional Prospective Study From a Tertiary Care Hospital in Central India

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important healthcare-associated opportunistic pathogen in healthcare settings, particularly among critically ill and hospitalized patients.Multidrug resistance, particularly carbapenem resistance, is a major problem that restricts treatment options and increases morbidity rates for patients admitted to intensive care.This study aimed to evaluate the clinical profile of patients with P. aeruginosa infection and determine the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the isolates in a tertiary care hospital in Central India.Methods: A hospital-based, cross-sectional prospective study was conducted in the Department of Microbiology, Index Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Indore, from January 2023 to December 2025.The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (ref.no.: MU/Research/EC/Ph.D/2023/028).A total of 171 non-duplicate clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa obtained from patients of all age groups were included.Isolates were identified using standard phenotypic methods, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method according to CLSI 2023 guidelines.Clinical and laboratory data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics, version 27.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, USA), with the chi-square test used to assess associations.Results: From a total of 171 P. aeruginosa isolates, 72 (42.1%) were recovered from respiratory specimens, followed by pus/wound swabs (24.0%), urine (16.4%), and blood (10.5 %).Most isolates were obtained from ICU patients (69.6%), and male patients constituted 65.5% of cases.Hospitalacquired/ventilator-associated pneumonia was the commonest clinical presentation (35.7%).The highest antimicrobial resistance was observed with ceftriaxone (69.0%), ceftazidime (60.2%), and cefepime (57.9%), followed by aztreonam (55.6%), piperacillin-tazobactam (53.8%), and levofloxacin (49.7%).Resistance to imipenem and meropenem was 44.4% and 40.4%, respectively, whereas polymyxin B showed the lowest resistance (2.3%).Significant associations were observed between antimicrobial resistance and ICU stay, prior antibiotic exposure, mechanical ventilation, urinary catheterization, central line/IV catheter use, diabetes mellitus, COPD, chronic kidney disease, and immunocompromised status (p<0.05).Conclusion: P. aeruginosa showed a substantial antimicrobial resistance burden, particularly among ICU patients.Regular local antibiogram surveillance, antimicrobial stewardship, and stringent infection prevention and control measures are essential for optimizing therapy and limiting the emergence of resistant strains.