Version 1: Bloodstream infections in cancer patients in central India: trend over five years

Bloodstream infection (BSI) is a frequent complication in patients with cancer with high mortality. Significant changing trends are observed in the epidemiology of BSI over a period of time and varies from country to country. With this background we aimed to study the distribution and antibiogram of bacterial pathogens causing BSI in cancer patients in central India. This was a single centre retrospective observational study done in a tertiary care cancer hospital in India. All adult and paediatric patients of haematological and solid organ malignancies whose blood culture was sent were included. Blood cultures were processed with the BacT/ALERT 3D system (BioMerieux, France) and identification of bacteria to species level and antimicrobial susceptibility (AST) was performed using the Vitek 2 compact system (BioMerieux, France) according to the recommendations of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). The demographic data and the microbiological data was retrieved from electronic medical records and microbiology laboratory records.Data was entered and tabulated using the Microsoft Excel software and statistical analysis was done using SPSS software. Culture positivity was higher in hemato-lymphoid malignancy as compared to solid organ malignancy. Gram-negative bacteria were more common etiologic agents of BSI in cancer patients. The rate of carbapenem resistant organisms was 24%. The MRSA rate was 60%. The poor sensitivity to primary empirical agent piperacillin–tazobactam and increasing prevalence of multidrug resistant organisms calls for stringent antimicrobial stewardship program.