Clinically significant Coagulase Negative Staphylococci and their antibiotic resistance pattern in a tertiary care hospital.

Objectives: To identify various species of coagulase negative staphylococci involved in neonatal septicaemia and determine their antimicrobial resistance pattern.

Methods: The prospective descriptive study was carried out from January 2012 to October 2013, at Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, and comprised clinical isolates of coagulase negative staphylococci recovered from the blood of neonates at Maternity and Children Hospital, Makkah..The identification of species and antibiotic sensitivity for each isolate was done using Microscan Walk Away system.

Results: Of the 190 clinical isolates S. epidermidis was the most common species found 144(75.8%).The overall drug resistance among the species ranged from 1.6% to 99.5% to all the drugs tested, except to vancomycin and linezolid which were 100% sensitive.The highest drug resistance was exhibited by penicillin 189 (99.5%), ampicillin 188 (99%), oxacillin 178 (93.6%) and augmentin 177 (93%). The minimum drug resistance was shown by synercid 4 (2.2%) and daptomycin 3 (1.6%). All species were 100% resistant to penicillin and ampicillin, except S. hyicus and one isolate of S. hominis-homin which was sensitive to ampicillin.

Conclusion: High rates of antibiotic resistance was seen among coagulase negative staphylococci to commonly-used antibiotics and majority of them were methicillin-resistant. The newer drugs tested can be used as an alternative.