Background: Multi-drug resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacteria are an emerging threat, both in hospital and community settings. As very few antibiotics are effective against such infections, the need of the hour is a new antibiotic or drug combination which can overcome the effect of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) and metallo β-lactamases (MBL). A new antibiotic combination of ceftriaxone, sulbactam and disodium edetate (CSE) has recently been proposed to tackle the MDR organisms.

Objective: Our study was carried out to assess the susceptibility of ESBL- and MBL-producing Gram-negative organisms to CSE.

Methods: The study was conducted in a tertiary-care hospital in Delhi, India, from February 2017 to June 2017. A total of 179 MDR (85 ESBL + 94 MBL) Gram-negative isolates from various clinical samples, identified by an automated system (Vitek 2) were tested against CSE using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Susceptibility to CSE was recorded based on interpretative zone sizes of ceftriaxone as per 2017 Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines.

Results: The most common isolate was Escherichia coli (76/179; 42.4%) followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (53/179; 29.6%) and Acinetobacter baumanii (27/179; 15.1%). The in vitro susceptibility of ESBL- and MBL-producing Gram-negative isolates to CSE was found to be 58/85 (68.2%) for ESBL and 37/94 (39.4%) for MBL.

Conclusion: The in vitro susceptibility results obtained for CSE against ESBL-producing organisms is promising. It has the potential to emerge as a carbapenem-sparing antibiotic, active against ESBL-producing strains. Further clinical studies are required to establish the clinical efficacy of CSE against MDR pathogens.

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African Journal of Laboratory Medicine    |    ISSN: 2225-2002 (PRINT)    |    ISSN: 2225-2010 (ONLINE)