Abstract

Sedigheh Javadpour*, Ehsan Karimi1 and Afsaneh Karmostaji

Coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS), commonly known as a part of normal-biota of human body, have become predominant pathogens over the last decades. Due to the vast use of antibiotics for therapy or prophylaxis, those CoNS strains acquired in the hospitals have become resistant to various antimicrobial agents. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from December 2007 to June 2008 on 5063 clinical samples. Identification of CoNS was performed by routine microbiological methods using gram staining, catalase and coagulase tests. Susceptibility of microorganisms to 14 antibiotics was determined by Disc Diffusion Method. Among 1573 positive cultures, 17.5% of isolates were CoNS. About 74% of isolates belonged to out patients and 26% of them were obtained from hospitalized patients. Most of CONs were isolated from internal (38.9%) and internal emergency wards (34.7%). Among different clinical samples, CoNS were mainly isolated from urine cultures (78.6%) in women. Vancomycin (100%) and Imipenem (94%) were found to be the most effective antibiotics. Ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin and aminoglycosides were effective antibiotics to combat CoNS in out patient department (OPD patients)