Susceptibility patterns of Enterococcus spp. isolated in Poland during 1996

Susceptibility of Enterococcus spp. isolated from various clinical specimen s to different antimicrobial agents was evaluated. Of the 346 enterococcal isolates obtained from four regional Polish hospitals during 6 months of 19 96, 261 (75.4%) were identified as Enterococcus faecalis, 75 (21.7%) as Ent erococcus faecium and ten (2.9%) as other enterococcal species. High-level resistance to gentamicin was expressed by 33.4% of E. faecalis and 86.5% of E. faecium strains and corresponding streptomycin resistance by 43.9 and 8 2.4%, respectively. Over 80% of E. faecium isolates were resistant to ampic illin. None of the isolates was resistant to teicoplanin, however 7.9% of E . faecalis and 1.4% of E. faecium strains were moderately susceptible to va ncomycin. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. and International Soc iety of Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.