High Level Gentamycin Resistance among Enterococcus Species Isolated From Clinical Samples in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Enterococcus, which comprises of gram positive organism acts as opportunistic pathogens which has their natural habitat in genital tract, gut and oral cavity. Resistance to wide variety of antibiotics has made enterococcus one of the important cause for nosocomial infection. Emergence of aminoglycoside resistance has made it a feared pathogen. Objective: Objective was to isolate, speciate and determination of high level gentamycin resistance among Enterococcus species. Material and Methods: Clinical samples like pus, urine, blood, CSF etc. were collected and processed. Speciation was done through sugar fermentation test, followed by antibiotic sensitivity test. Results: Of the 81 isolates processed for species identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing, 38 were identified as E. faecalis, 27 as E. faecium, 15 E.avium and One E.durans. A total of 24 isolates showed resistance to high level gentamicin by disc diffusion method. Thus there were about 30[37.03%] Multi Drug Resistance [MDR] isolates among the 81 Enterococcus species. Conclusion: Increased incidence of High Level Aminoglycoside Resistance[HLAR]and MDR among the enterococcal species in the study, indicates indiscriminate use of broad spectrum antibiotics. Antibiotic stewardship, proper hygiene and rational use of antibiotics have to be implicated to prevent resistance among the enterococcus species.