Assessing antibiotic therapy for Acinetobacter baumannii infections in an academic medical center

In 2006, our clinical microbiology laboratory suspected that our institution was experiencing an increase in Acinetobacter baumannii infections and was concerned about resistance. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the A. baumannii antibiogram for 2006 and assess the appropriateness of antibiotics therapy. The study included all adult inpatients with a positive culture for A. baumannii between January 1 2006 and December 31 2006. A total of 129 isolates were identified. A. baumannii was highly susceptible to imipenem (97.7%) and meropenem (95.3%). Among the aminoglycosides, A. baumannii had reduced susceptibility to gentamicin (40.5%). Based on their susceptibility patterns, only 76 (58.9%) antibiotics regimens were susceptible against the isolates. At our institution, A. baumannii remains highly susceptible to the carbapenems and aminoglycosides. We encourage our practitioners to analyze the susceptibility pattern of each isolate when ordering antibiotics, which will help increase our rate of appropriate antibiotic selection.