Abstract

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen and is the most important cause of nosocomial infections. P. aeruginosa has become resistant to almost all generally available antibiotics with limited treatment options and multidrug resistant is a most important source of concern between hospital-acquired infections.

Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of bacterial infection and the antibiotic sensitivity pattern of P. aeruginosa isolated from patients with low respiratory tract infection.

Materials and Methods: This study comprised of 270 patients (151 treated as inpatients and 119 as outpatients). Sputum and broncoalveolar lavage samples were subjected to gram staining, bacterial culture, and antibiotic sensitivity for bacterial isolates as per standard techniques.

Result: Growth of pathogens was obtained from 55.9% in-patients and 44.0% outpatients. P. aeruginosa (25.2%) was the major organism in hospitalized patients, whereas Morexilla catarrhalis (6.93%) was the most common pathogen isolated from outpatients. Imipenem were found to be the most effective antibiotics against P. aeruginosa.

Conclusion: These findings focused on careful consideration for monitoring of antimicrobial use in order to reduce occurrence and spread of antimicrobial resistant pathogen.

Key words: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, lower respiratory tract infection patient, multidrug resistant