Bacterial pathogens causing urinary tract infections in children and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka

Introduction and Objectives: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common infections in childhood. The objective of our study was to ascertain the commonest organisms causing UTI in children and their ABST patterns. The study was carried out in a Teaching Hospital in Sri Lanka.

Methods: Data was collected from children who were confirmed to have UTI by positive urine culture (>105 bacteria/ml urine) between July-December 2015. The clinical presentation, presence of predisposing factors and reports of urine culture and the antibiotic susceptibility patterns were analysed.

Results: Coliforms were found to be the commonest organism followed by Enterococcus spp. Nitrofurantoin showed the highest sensitivity of the tested antibiotics against both coliforms and the enterococcus groups. However the sensitivity to most of the antibiotics showed a reduction from previously recorded values in studies done in Sri Lanka.

Conclusions: The authors emphasize the need for regular revision of the list of organisms causing UTI and the antibiotic sensitivity to improve the treatment of childhood UTI with the ideal antibiotic.