Abstract
Objective: To investigate of the production of carbapenemase among Enterobacterales isolates obtained from surveillance cultures from patients attended at a university hospital in Rio de Janeiro, as well as the distribution of bacterial species and their susceptibility patterns. Methods: Rectal swabs were collected at the admission of patients and, afterwards, weekly, in the units: Coronary, Dialysis, Emergency, Hematological, Pediatrics, and Intensive Care. The isolates obtained were submitted to phenotypic methods for the detection of carbapenemase production. Bacterial identification was performed using mass spectrometry. The antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by disk-diffusion and the detection of the genetic determinants was carried out through the Polymerase Chain Reaction. Results: The production of carbapenemases was observed in 34.9% of the isolates. The most frequent bacterial species were Klebsiella pneumoniae (68.4%) and Escherichia coli (15.8%). A high rate of multidrug resistance (89.5%) was observed among the carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE). It was found that 81.6% of the isolates had the blaKPC gene and 15.8%, blaNDM. None of the isolates presented the blaOXA-48-like gene. Two isolates were concomitantly positive for blaKPC/blaNDM genes. Conclusion: A high rate of colonization by multidrug-resistant CPE was observed, with a predominance of K. pneumoniae carrying blaKPC.