Antimicrobial resistance in European isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is responsible for a substantial fraction of hospita l infections. Twenty-Eve European university hospitals submitted a total of 1411 Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates for susceptibility testing during 199 7 and 1998. The isolates showed highest susceptibility to amikacin (87.5%), meropenem (87.3%) and piperacillin/tazobactam (86.8%). Susceptibility to c iprofloxacin was 73.2%. There was no clear geographical distribution of res istance, although isolates from northwestern Europe tended to be more susce ptible than those from southeastern Europe. Isolates that were resistant to one class of antibiotics were also often resistant to at least one other c lass of antibiotics. Imipenem-resistant isolates were generally not clonall y related.