Background: Development of highly-antibiotic resistant bacterial organisms responsible for urinary tract infections (UTI) represents an important global health problem.
Objectives: To describe the microbiological characteristics of first UTI episode in hospitalized children
Patients and methods: retrospective study enrolling all children with UTI and diagnosed by suprapubic aspiration/ urinary catheterization.
Results: 1694 children (2294 UTI episodes) were enrolled; 1350 (79.7%) had one single episode. 34.3%, 32.9%, 18.1% and 14.8% of the patients were aged 0-2, 3-6, 7-12 and 13-24 months. Overall, 1955 pathogens were isolated, of them the most frequent were Escherichia coli (Ec), Klebsiella spp. (Kleb) and Enterococcus spp. (Enc): 56.9%, 14.1% and 11%, respectively. Ec representation increased while Kleb and Enc distribution decreased among UTI pathogens with increase in patients` age. One hundred and thirty-six (39.5%) of the 344 renal ultrasound examinations were abnormal, with more abnormal examinations among patients with Enc-UTI than those with Ec and Kleb-UTI (P.
Conclusions: Close surveillance of UTI episodes, their etiologic agents and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns should be considered in order to improve antibiotic therapy for these infections.
