Microbiological Profile of Blood Stream Infections in Febrile Neutropenic Patients at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand.

Febrile neutropenia is a serious complication of chemotherapy affecting patients with both hematological and solid malignancies, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, there is paucity of literature from Uttarakhand, India on microbiological profile of blood stream infections (BSIs) in febrile neutropenic patients.  The study aims to generate preliminary data on microbiological profile and antibiotic resistance pattern of BSIs in febrile neutropenic patients.   The design involved cross-sectional study from January 1, 2019 to July 31, 2019.  Data of nonrepetitive paired peripheral blood samples obtained from 306 consecutive febrile neutropenic cancer patients of all age groups and both sexes, for culture and sensitivity testing, were retrospectively analyzed. All blood samples were subjected to aerobic culture using BACT/ALERT three-dimensional microbial detection system. Growth obtained in culture was identified by conventional biochemical methods. Antibiotic susceptibility testing of bacterial isolates was performed using modified Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method.   Fisher's exact test was used for the analysis.  Mean age ± SD of the study population was 32.39 ± 10.56 years with a male to female ratio of 1.55:1. 74.18% of the blood samples were received from patients suffering from hematological malignancies. Microbiologically confirmed BSIs were observed in 27.1% patients. Gram-negative bacilli were predominantly isolated in culture with . being the most common. Percentage resistance values of gram-negative bacilli to aminoglycosides, β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations, fluoroquinolones, cephalosporins, carbapenems, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, co-trimoxazole, and doxycycline were 26.6 to 91.7%, 8.3 to 86.6%, 10 to 66.7%, 13.3 to 73.3%, 8.3 to 73.3%, 80 to 93.3%, 13.3 to 20%, 16.7 to 66.6%, and 13.3 to 16.7%, respectively.  Implementation of antimicrobial stewardship program along with hospital infection control practices is needed for preventing BSIs due to MDR organisms.