Evaluation of Retrospective Results Found in the Hospital Infections Laboratory. Istanbul University, Institute of Health Science, Medical Microbiology Department

Hospitals are potential source of infection risk during healthcare delivery. Since vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and carbapenemase-producing Gram-negative rods cause persistent colonization and multi-drug resistant bacterial infections, they are important in nosocomial infections. In this study, we aimed to retrospectively evaluate rectal swab samples of patients hospitalized in our clinics in terms of VRE and carbapenem-resistant (CR) Gram-negative rods. Standard clinical laboratory methods were used to isolate and identify CR Gram-negative rods and VRE from samples sent to our Hospital Infections Research Laboratory between 1.January.2020-31.December.2020.Antimicrobial susceptibilities were determined by disk diffusion method and results were evaluated according to CLSI criteria. A total of 627VRE (23.32%) were isolated from 2688 rectal swabs and 150 (20.24%) CRGram-negative rods from 741 rectal swabs samples. Culture was positive in 777 (28.9%) specimens and 627 (80.7%) isolates were VRE, 150 (19.3%) were CR Gram-negative rods. In culture positive specimens, VRE was most frequently detected in internal medicine ward (45.43%, 353/777) and pediatric intensive care-neonatal ward (30.37%, 236/777). CR Gram-negative rod was observed as 20.24% (150/741) only in pediatric intensive care-neonatal ward. 75 of these strains were CR K.pneumoniae,7CR K.oxytoca,26CR Enterobacter spp, 2,CR E. coli and 40CR Acinetobacter spp. In pediatric services, 146 of total 296 isolates were VRE. With the surveillance studies carried out in the control of hospital infections, each health institution determines the microorganisms that make up its own hospital flora, their resistance status and their distribution. We believe that the data we obtain will contribute to the infection control processes of our hospital.