Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of bacteria isolated from patients of respiratory tract infection in a tertiary care hospital of Central India

Background: Respiratory tract infections are one of the commonest types of infections affecting the Indian population and are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. To deal with multidrug resistance one should be armed with region specific data about the susceptibility patterns of antimicrobials. This study was planned to identify the common pathogens responsible for the respiratory tract infection and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns.Methods: Smears were prepared from the specimens and gram stains of all clinical samples were done. The organisms were grown on various media and identified according to the standard procedures. The susceptibility patterns of the bacterial pathogens were determined following the panel of antimicrobial agents. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis.Results: Out of 513 samples 471 samples were further processed. Klebsiella (30.42%) was found to be commonest pathogen followed by Pseudomonas (28.36%). Ampicillin and piperacillin /tazobactam combination were found to be highly efficient against Pseudomonas (83% and 58.8% respectively), E. coli (68% and 50.7% respectively), and Klebsiella (43% and 30.3% respectively). Conclusions: In our study, we found penicillins as the most efficacious antimicrobials to treat respiratory pathogens. The study reveals that the antibiotic susceptibility pattern varies across regions. The prescription of a right antibiotic, for a right patient will help to minimize the menace of emergence of antimicrobial resistance