Abstract

Critically ill patients admitted to the Intensive care unit (ICU) have demonstrated an increased incidence of antimicrobial resistance compared to other hospitalized patients. Therefore, efforts should be exerted to reveal the contributing epidemiological factors for antimicrobial resistance to reduce mortality as well as health care costs. This study aims to explore the literature to evaluate the epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in general ICU in Saudi Arabia. The literature was reviewed through the PubMed database in the duration between 2009 and 2019. Search terms included a combination of antimicrobial resistance, general ICU and Saudi. The findings were then filtered to include original research articles investigating antimicrobial resistance in general ICUs in Saudi Arabia. A total of 89 articles were retrieved. Following the exclusion of articles on animals and including trials only on humans, 23 articles appeared. A total of six articles were considered as eligible, published between 2009 and 2019, covering a total of 10,071 bacterial isolates from general ICUs in Saudi Arabia. The trials included respiratory tract, urinary tract, and bloodstream infections. The study concludes that the incidence of antimicrobial resistance in general ICUs in Saudi Arabia is high and alarming. Future studies should focus on exploring solutions for this critical problem in Saudi Arabia.

Key words: Antimicrobial resistance, intensive care, ICU, nosocomial infections