Patterns of infections and antimicrobial susceptibility in elderly patients: Long term care based study

Objective: This study has been conducted to determine Patterns of infections and antimicrobial susceptibility in elderly patients admitted to long term care at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia, Eastern province to guide rationale for antibiotic use and prevent resistance. Materials & Methods: A total of 100 specimens were collected from100 elderly patients ≥ 60years, both males and females admitted to long term care in a tertiary hospital in Dammam city, Eastern province, Saudi Arabia during the year 2022. Collected specimens included forty urine samples , forty sputum samples and twenty swabs from infected pressure ulcers .All collected specimens were sent for bacterial culture and sensitivity, bacterial species were determined by conventional methods and disk diffusion was used to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the bacteria isolates after 48 hours incubation. Results: Out of the 100 cultured specimens, 118 pathogens were detected in the whole sample where Gram-negative bacteria: primarily, Klebsiella pneumoniae (32.2%) followed by pseudomonas aeruginosa (20.3%) then Acinetobacter bumannii (14.4%) represented the most prevalent pathogens. High percentage of multidrug resistant pathogens (MDR) was detected mostly among Acinetobacter 60% followed by pseudomonas 35% then E-coli 33%. Antibiotic sensitivity was variable among different pathogens, gram negative pathogens sensitivity was generally high mainly to amino glycosides and carbapenems groups.