Abstract
BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most prevalent infections, with a variety of etiologic agents, a high number of occurrences, relapses, and complications; also, antibiotic resistance of the pathogenic bacterium is a hugely significant challenge for physicians. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this research was to identify the common bacterial uropathogens as well as their susceptibility to commonly used antibiotics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: During the first six months of 2018, a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on urine samples of 1780 patients at FMIC based on culture. Bacterial typing was performed using cystine lactose electrolyte deficient agar and blood agar, and Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion was employed to assess the sensitivity of the bacteria to various antibiotics. RESULTS: Among 1780 patients in 341 (19.15%) samples, uropathogens were isolated. E. coli (63.9%), Enterococcus (11.1%), Serratia species (10.8%), Staphylococcus species (8.2%), Klebsiella (2.9%), Proteus species (1.8%), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (1.2%) were the most common bacterial uropathogens. More than two-thirds of patients were female (69.6%), with the remaining 30.4% male. Ampicillin, amoxicillin, and erythromycin were the antibiotics with the highest resistance rates in bacterial uropathogens, at 92.6%, 82.9%, and 82.1%, respectively. Furthermore, ceftriaxone, ceftazidime, cefixime, and sulfamethoxazole were antibiotics with resistance rates exceeding 70%. The antibiotics pristinamycin and ticarcillin were the most sensitive, with a TRR of zero. Ertapenem, imipenem, amikacin, tazobactam, fosfomycin, vancomycin, and nitrofurantoin were the antibiotics with the lowest resistance rates (less than 10%). CONCLUSION: E. coli was the most common bacterial uropathogen isolated in this study, followed by Enterococcus species. Our findings suggest that physicians, particularly in FMIC, consider E. coli, Enterococcus, Serratia and Staphylococcus as the most common bacteria, and use pristinamycin, ticarcillin, ertapenem, imipenem, amikacin, tazobactam, fosfomycin, vancomycin, and nitrofurantoin as sensitive antibiotics in empirical UTI treatment.