Prevalence and Antibiotic Resistance Pattern of Citrobacter freundii Isolated from A Burn Center

  Background and purpose: Citrobacter freundii causes variety of infections, including respiratory tract infection, wound infection, meningitis, and urinary tract infection. The bacterium is considered as one of the main concerns in healthcare settings due to high antibiotic resistance patterns. The current research aimed at studying the prevalence of C. freundii strains in burned patients and investigating the antibiotic susceptibility patterns. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, C. freundii isolates (n=109) were collected from clinical specimens in Sari Zareh Hospital, 2016-2017. Conventional biochemical tests were used to confirm the presence of bacteria. Then, antibiotic resistance pattern was determined using standard disk diffusion (Kirby-Bauer) according to the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Results: Out of 3248 clinical samples, 109 (3.35%) C. freundii isolates were identified which were detected mainly in wounds (72.50%). Susceptibility patterns indicated that about 11.0% of isolates were susceptible against SXT, 95 of which were resistant to that. Susceptibility and resistance patterns against amikacin were 47.7%. Resistance to cephalexin and SXT, and amikacin were 87.15% and 48.62%, respectively. Conclusion: In this study, C. Freundii was detected as a major concern in burn ward. This bacterium is highly resistant to the majority of antibiotics, therefore, appropriate infection control processes and also using effective antibiotics such as amikacin would be of great value.