HIGH-LEVEL AMINOGLYCOSIDE RESISTANCE OF E NTEROCOCCUS-FAECALIS IN 1310 CLINICAL STRAINS ISOLATED FROM 27 GENERAL HOSPITALS

1310 strains of Enterococcus faecalis have been surveyed from October to December 1990 in 27 general hospitals. No strain was resistant to v ancomycin and ampicillin. No production of a beta-lactamase was detect ed in the highly gentamicin-resistant isolates. The percentage of gent amicin resistant strains was 11, with kanamycin-gentamicin resistance alone in 5 % of the isolates, and resistance to all the aminoglycoside s in 6 % of isolates. The geographical distribution varied from 0 to 5 7 %. The percentage of strains resistant to gentamicin was 16.9 in blo od cultures and 14.9 in urines. The strains isolated from the geriatri c wards have the highest rate of resistance.