What ARMOR update means for ocular infections
Tailor antibiotic choices for each patient, as resistance remains high, according to the 2015 Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring in Ocular micRoorganisms (ARMOR) update.
Reviewed by Penny A. Asbell, MD
New York-Select antibiotics carefully for patients with ocular infections, and consider possible resistance issues, said Penny A. Asbell, MD.
That’s because the latest results from the Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring in Ocular micRoorganisms (ARMOR) study show continued resistance to commonly prescribed antibiotics, said Dr. Asbell, professor of ophthalmology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York.
“When we think about antibiotics, we like to think they’re broad spectrum-but they don’t always work,” Dr. Asbell said.
In the ARMOR results reported this year, 20% of Staphylococcus aureus isolates and 39% of coagulase-negative staphylococci were resistant to three or more drug classes, according to Dr. Asbell.
Multidrug resistance remained particularly high for methicillin-resistant S. aureus and methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci.
“Isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae remained susceptible to fluoroquinolones and chloramphenicol, while nonsusceptibility to azithromycin and penicillin was 50% and 38%, respectively,” wrote Dr. Asbell and colleagues.
Although resistance among Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates remained low in 2015, there was some nonsusceptibility to polymyxin B (7%).
In both 2014 and 2015, Haemophilus influenza was generally susceptible to all antibiotics tested.
One antibiotic that appeared to perform better in ARMOR than others was vancomycin, which basically had zero nonsusceptibility, Dr. Asbell said.
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