| Summary: | Background: Patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) who are admitted in a hospital but do not respond to initial antimicrobial therapy pose a challenge to the attending physician. The knowledge of the likely pathogens and their sensitivity pattern can help the clinicians to better manage such cases. Aims and Objectives: To study the spectrum of the bacterial isolates and to determine the antimicrobial sensitivity pattern obtained from the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid of CAP patients who did not respond to initial antimicrobial therapy. Setting and Design: A retrospective study of 87 patients who were admitted in the medical wards of a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India with the diagnosis of CAP and were not responding to initial antimicrobial therapy. Materials and Methods: The patient-related data were obtained from the case records and entered on a pre-designed proforma. This included demographic characteristics and reports of relevant clinical tests. The BAL culture and sensitivity results were also noted on the proforma. Results: The mean age of the patients was 49.28 ± 16.61 years (mean ± SD, range 17-80 years). Fifty-seven patients (65.5%) of were male. Also, 98 bacterial isolates were obtained from the BAL fluid of 87 patients. The most prevalent bacterial isolates included Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 35, 35.7%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (n = 19, 19.4%), Staphylococcus aureus (n = 15, 15.3%) and Acinetobacter species (n = 11, 11.2%). Most bacterial isolates tested showed 100% sensitivity to meropenem except Acinetobacter species (25%). Conclusion: P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae were the most common bacterial pathogens isolated from the BAL fluid. The isolates tested showed 100% sensitivity to meropenem except Acinetobacter species. All the methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates displayed sensitivity to vancomycin, linezolid and teicoplanin.
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