Abstract
BACKGROUND: To explore the prevalence of urinary tract infections (UTIs) among female patients in the Najran region of Saudi Arabia and determine their antimicrobial resistance pattern. METHODS: This study was conducted on 136 urine samples collected from outpatient departments (OPDs) of the different government hospitals in the Najran region of Saudi Arabia. Over one year, the results of susceptibility testing reports of outpatient midstream urine samples from three government hospitals were prospectively evaluated. RESULTS: Of 136 urine samples, only 123 (90.45%) were found to show significant growth for UTIs, from which 23 different uropathogens were identified. Escherichia coli (58.5%) was the most commonly isolated organism, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (8.1%). The isolated microorganism showed increased resistance patterns from 3.3% to 62.6%, with an overall resistance of 27.19%. Meropenem was the most effective antimicrobial, followed by amikacin and ertapenem (0.47%, 0.91%, and 1.5% resistance, respectively). At the same time, ampicillin and cephazolin were the least (62.6% and 59.5% resistance, respectively) effective. Overall, eleven (8.94%) uropathogens isolates were ESBLs, among which there were eight (6.5%) Escherichia coli, one (0.81%) Klebsiella pneumoniae, one (0.81%) Klebsiella oxytoca, and one (0.81%) Citrobacter amalonaticus. CONCLUSIONS: E. coli remains the most commonly isolated causative uropathogens, followed by Klebsiella species. The prevalence of pathogenic E. coli and Klebsiella species underscores the importance of developing cost-effective, precise, and rapid identification systems to minimize public exposure to uropathogens. Antibiotic susceptibility data revealed that most of the isolates were resistant to the majority of the antibiotics. The patients with UTIs in the Najran region of Saudi Arabia are at a high risk of antibiotic resistance, leading to significant problems in outpatient department (OPD) treatment outcomes and raising the alarm for the physician to change their empiric treatment.