Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern in Enterococcus faecalis Strains Isolated From Expressed Prostatic Secretions of Patients With Chronic Bacterial Prostatitis.

PURPOSE: Enterococcus faecalis is one of the most common pathogens linked to chronic bacterial prostatitis (CBP). Owing to a limited number of previous studies addressing this topic, we aimed to determine the drug resistance patterns of E. faecalis strains isolated from CBP patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: One thousand twenty-one patients visited a single hospital owing to chronic prostatitis for 5 years. Culture specimens were obtained by use of a modified Meares-Stamey method. The minimal inhibitory concentrations of the antimicrobials were assessed by use of the Vitek II microbial identification system as suggested by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute.

RESULTS: Forty-one samples from 41 patients who had significant E. faecalis loads for defining CBP were included in this study. The E. faecalis strains in our study were resistant to penicillin (9.7%), ampicillin (0%), ampicillin/sulbactam (0%), nitrofurantoin (0%), imipenem (0%), vancomycin (0%), teicoplanin (0%), quinupristin/dalfopristin (100%), ciprofloxacin (9.7%), levofloxacin (4.8%), norfloxacin (26.8%), erythromycin (95%), gentamicin (46.3%), tetracycline (97.5%), and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (31.5%), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Fluoroquinolones have been the preferred antibiotics for treating CBP. Because of their low rate of drug resistance, fluoroquinolones are suitable therapeutic agents for E. faecalis strains causing CBP in Korea. Even though tetracycline, erythromycin, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole have been prescribed as an empirical antimicrobial therapy for chronic prostatitis, we cannot recommend these drugs for treatment of E. faecalis isolates because of the high rates of drug resistance.