Abstract

Objective: Bacterial infections are frequent in the patients with neutropenia. Therefore, information on antibiotic susceptibility is important for the success of empirical therapy.

Materials and Methods: In this study, the distribution of isolated infectious agents and antibiotic resistance patterns were investigated during neutropenic attacks of the patients with hematological malignancy, who were followed up in the hematology inpatient clinic between 2002 and 2004.

Results: Out of 124 isolated bacteria, 70 (56%) were gram-positive cocci and 54 (44%) were gram-negative bacilli. The most commonly isolated gram-positive cocci and gram-negative bacilli were coagulase- negative staphylococci (CNS) and Escherichia coli (e. coli), respectively. While methicillin/oxacillin resistance was above 60% for all Staphylococcus strains, it was 60.4% and 66.7% for Staphylococcus aureus and CNS, respectively.

Conclusion: In recent years, an increased resistance against to ampicillin- sulbactam and a decreased resistance to ceftazidime of E.coli which is a member of gram-negative isolates has been determined. The results of this study emphasize the importance of surveillance for hospital infections.