| Summary: | <em>Background</em>. Resistance to carbapenems in <em>Klebsiella</em> <em>pneumoniae</em> infections could compromise therapy efficiency in hospitals. In Italy, the percentage of <em>K</em>. <em>pmeumoniae</em> resistant to carbapenems blood-isolated is 35%. <br /><em>Materials</em> <em>and</em> <em>Methods</em>. Seventy-three multidrug-resistant <em>K</em>. <em>pneumoniae</em> clinical isolates coming from Foggia (Italy) have been phenotypically classified through matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry between February and May 2014 in order to locate an eventual infectious outbreak. <br /><em>Conclusions</em>. Classification of microbial isolates is essential to this purpose and starts from phenotypic methodologies to the most complex genotypic methods. Among these, mass spectrometry utilization appears to be a simple, useful and quick instrument in a clinical microbiology laboratory.
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