LAUSR

Treatment of critically ill patients entails a great risk for intrahospital infections. Systematic monitoring of intrahospital infection data is a widely used practice in developed countries, while in developing and underdeveloped countries these data are scarce. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a developing country, precise data cannot be found; hence, this study was created with the aim to monitor the profile and resistance patterns of microorganisms isolated from patients being treated in the only medical intensive care unit (MICU) in the country. This is a retrospective observational study of microorganisms isolated from all patients treated at MICU in the University Clinical Center of Republic of Srpska from January 1 through December 31, 2017. Analysis of all samples was performed using standardized microbiological procedures, while sensitivity to antimicrobials was performed using the disk diffusion method. One thousand six hundred twenty-five samples were taken from 633 critically ill patients and sent off for analysis; 572 were positive for bacteria (35.2%). Gram-negative bacteria were isolated more frequently (65.2%), specifically Acinetobacter baumannii (25.5%), followed by Klebsiella spp. (10.8%). A. baumannii was resistant to all antibiotics except for colistin, to which it was highly sensitive (99.7%). It was moderately sensitive (76%) to rifampicin. Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococci were the most prevalent Gram-positive bacteria (15%, 7.3%, and 9.2%, respectively) isolated in this study. It is clear from this study that Gram-negative bacteria are predominant in the newly established MICU. A. baumannii was found to be the most prevalent Gram-negative bacteria, and S. epidermidis was the most prevalent Gram-positive bacteria.