Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the Oropharyngeal Ecosystem of Tube-Fed Patients

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Emerg Infect Dis
• Personal Author:
  Leibovitz, Arthur ; Dan, Michael ; Zinger, Jonathan ; Carmeli, Yehuda ; Habot, Beni ; Segal, Rephael
• Description:
  We evaluated whether elderly patients fed with nasogastric tubes (NGT) are predisposed to Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonization in the oropharynx. Fifty-three patients on NGT feeding and 50 orally fed controls with similar clinical characteristics were studied. The tongue dorsum was swabbed and cultured. P. aeruginosa was isolated in 18 (34%) of the NGT-fed group but in no controls (p<0.001). Other gram-negative bacteria were cultured from 34 (64%) of NGT-fed patients as compared with 4 (8%) of controls (p<0.001). Antibiotic susceptibility of the oropharyngeal P. aeruginosa isolates was compared with that of isolates from sputum cultures obtained from our hospital's bacteriologic laboratory. The oropharyngeal isolates showed a higher rate of resistance; differences were significant for amikacin (p<0.03). Scanning electron microscope studies showed a biofilm containing P. aeruginosa organisms. The pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profile of these organisms was similar to that of P. aeruginosa isolates from the oropharynx. NGT-fed patients may serve as vectors of resistant P. aeruginosa strains.
• Subjects:
  Aged Aged, 80 And Over Biofilm Biofilms Case-Control Studies Cross-Sectional Studies Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field Enteral Nutrition Humans Intubation, Gastrointestinal Long-Term Care Nasogastric Tube Feeding Oral Flora Oropharynx Prospective Studies Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Research Reservoir

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• Source:
  Emerg Infect Dis. 9(8):956-959
• Pubmed ID:
  12967493
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC3020605
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Volume:
  9
• Issue:
  8
• Collection(s):
  Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:473a72155c3d59767c0550fec4cb6a3051b3c912002bd868a63c43df97a3d84c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/14239/cdc_14239_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 321.55 KB ]