Objective: Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) which are important nosocomial agents, are frequently isolated at an increasing rate in recent years and they can lead to serious infections which are difficult to treat due to multi-drug resistance. The aim of this study was to determine the distribution of VRE strains isolated from various clinical specimens between the years 2011 and 2014 according to services, age, specimens and to investigate the susceptibilities to the other antibiotics.

Materials and Methods: Identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing of the strains were performed using VITEK 2 compact automated system (bioMérieux, France) in Medical Microbiology Laboratory of Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey. Vancomycin, teicoplanin and linezolid resistance was also tested by the E-test method (bioMérieux, France).

Results: Of the 139 VRE strains, 126 (91%) were identified as Enterococcus faecium and 13 (9%) as Enterococcus faecalis. Most of the strains were obtained from urine specimens (60%). It was determined that 50% of the isolates were obtained from intensive care unit and 63% of that were obtained from patients who were 60 years and older. It was observed that the incidence of VRE was increasing with age. The antibiotic resistance rates of VRE were determined as 98% for ampicillin, 97% for ciprofloxacin, 90% for high level gentamicin, 98% for high level streptomycin, 94% for teicoplanin and 6.5% for linezolid.

Conclusion: High rate of ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, high level gentamicin, high level streptomycin and teicoplanin resistance was observed in the VRE isolates studied. Although the rate of linezolid resistance was found to be higher in comparison to the previous data, linezolid was determined as the most effective antibiotic against VRE isolates in our hospital.