Prevalence and Antibiotic Resistance Profile of Bacterial Pathogens in Aerobic Vaginitis: A Retrospective Study in Italy.

Aerobic vaginitis (AV) is a vaginal infectious condition, characterized by a high inflammatory response and/or signs of epithelial atrophy, a decrease in the amount of Lactobacillus spp. and an increase in enteric origin bacteria. AV, often misdiagnosed, is difficult to treat due to the emerging spread of multi-drug resistant bacterial strains. The present study aimed to define the prevalence of AV, to detect causative bacteria and their antimicrobial resistance pattern. Women 10-95 years old, admitted to San Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi d'Aragona Hospital, Salerno, Italy (in the years 2015-2019) are included in the study. Bacterial identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests were carried out by VITEK ^® 2. Among 2069 patients, 1176 tested positive for microbial growth. A higher incidence of infection was found in the 55-64 age group. Among the pathogenic strains, 50.4% were Gram-negative, and 49.6% were Gram-positive. Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) (32.5%) was the most representative strain, followed by Enterococcus faecalis ( E. faecalis ) (29.4%), Klebsiella pneumoniae ( K. pneumoniae ) (7.8%) and Enterococcus faecium ( E. faecium ) (7.7%). E. coli showed high sensitivity to carbapenems and amikacin. K. pneumoniae carbapenems resistance was fluctuating over time. Alarming resistance to vancomycin was not recorded for Enterococci . Both strains were sensitive to teicoplanin, linezolid and tigecycline. Proper diagnosis and an effective therapeutic approach are needed to improve AV management.