ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY OF BLOOD CULTURE ISOLATES OF ENTEROBACTERIACEAE FROM 6 NORWEGIAN HOSPITALS 1991-1992

From August 1991 to February 1992, each of the six largest hospitals t hroughout Norway collected 84 to 107 consecutive blood culture isolate s of Enterobacteriaceae, altogether 571 isolates. The distribution of various species and genera at the different hospitals was uniform; Esc herichia coli being most prevalent (57-67%), followed by Klebsiella sp p. (12-18%) and Proteus mirabilis (7-11%). Twenty-one and 4% of E. col i isolates were resistant to ampicillin and cefuroxime, respectively, and 11% of Klebsiella isolates were cefuroxime resistant. Five Enterob acter isolates and one Citrobacter isolate were resistant to ceftazidi me, and one Salmonella isolate was resistant to imipenem. All isolates were susceptible to ciprofloxacin and tobramycin. These results were compared with the antibiotic consumption in each hospital region. Alth ough hospitals in the regions with the highest consumption of ampicill in tended to have a higher percentage of isolates resistant to this ag ent, no significant differences were found. There was no significant d ifference between hospitals regarding prevalence of cefuroxime-resista nt isolates.