Antimicrobial resistance among isolates cultured from patients hospitalized with lower respiratory tract infection in Europe.

Lower respiratory tract infections represent a major concern, especially with increasing numbers of resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, extended-spectrum plactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae, and Staphylococcus aureus with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin. Here, we report on the susceptibilities of isolates cultured from patients with lower respiratory tract infection to different antibiotics obtained from 20 western and central European hospitals in 1997 and 1998 as part of the SENTRY Antimicrobial surveillance Program.’ In total, 2083 isolates were obtained. The most frequently isolated organisms from patients with lower respiratory tract infection were Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, comprising 21.0% and 20.3% of the isolates, respectively, followed by Enterobatter spp. (7.9%), Escherichia coli (7.0%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (5.7%), Haemophilus infiuenzae (4.7%), Acinetobacter spp. (4.4%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (4.3%), Serratia spp. (3.8%), and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (2.6%).The large contribution of Staphylococcus aureus is in agreement with a 1996 American national nosocomial infection surveillance report, which showed that Staphylococcus aureus was the commonest cause of pneumonia, accounting for