Bacteriemias de origen comunitario en pacientes adultos que acuden al servicio de urgencias de un hospital universitario

bacteremia is an important cause of morbimortality. this study describes the episodes of community-acquired bacteremia in adult patients registered at our hospital. between january 2005, and december 2009, 271 episodes were studied. the diagnostic yield of blood cultures was 13.5 %. a total of 52 % of patients were male and 48 % female. the mean age was 60. the most frequent comorbidities were: diabetes (21 %), neoplasia (18 %), cardiopathy (11 %), and hiv infection (8 %). the focus was- respiratory (21 %), urinary (15 %), cutaneous (9 %), and others (13 %). gram-positive bacteria prevailed (51.4%). the most frequent microorganisms were escherichia coli (25 %), streptococcus pneumoniae (22.9 %), and staphylococcus aureus (12.3 %). bacteremia was polymicrobial in 7 % of the cases. thirty three percent of e. coli isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin and 6 % to ceftazidime. fourteen percent of s. aureus strains were resistant to oxacillin whereas only 7 % of s. pneumoniae expressed high resistance to penicillin with mics = 2 ug/ml, according to meningitis breakpoints.