Speciation of clinically significant coagulase negative staphylococci and their antibiotic resistant patterns in a tertiary care hospital.

Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CoNS) are the indigenous flora of the human skin and mucous membrane. They are usually contaminants, when isolated from a clinical specimen. These organisms are becoming increasingly recognized as agents of clinically significant nosocomial blood stream infections. The study was undertaken to identify the prevalence of clinical isolates of CoNS, their speciation and to determine the antibiotic sensitivity/resistant patterns of CoNS. A total of 96 isolates were collected from different samples and subjected to biochemical characterization and antimicrobial screening using conventional microbiological methods. Nighty-seven isolates were conveniently identified. Staphylococcus.epidermidis(43,44.8%),S.saprophyticus(26,27.1%),S.haemolyticus(19,19.7%), S.lugdunensis (2,2.1%), S.warneri (2,2.1%), S.cohnii (1,1%), and others(3,3.1%).These 3 isolates were not identified to the species level. Antibiotic susceptibility testing showed maximum resistance to ampicillin and penicillin with 85%-95% and sensitivity to pipercillin / tazobactam, vacomycin and linezolid (85%-100%). The increased recognition of pathogen potential CoNS and emergence of drug resistance among them demonstrates the need to adopt simple laboratory procedure to identify and determine the prevalence and antibiotic resistant patterns of CoNS. It will help for clinicians in treating as the first line of treatment in the hospital.