Antibiograms

An introduction to cumulative antibiograms

Antibiograms provide users with an overview of antimicrobial susceptibility profiles for specific microorganisms. This can be helpful in guiding the choice of empiric antimicrobial therapy, supporting antimicrobial stewardship programs in the development of local treatment guidelines, aiding in monitoring resistance trends over time, and formulary management.

SA Pathology routinely prepares antibiograms for bacterial isolates to inform local health networks and clinicians. These are generally presented to summarise the susceptibilities for urine, blood and non-urine/ non-blood isolates (for example, sputum or wound culture results).

The antibiograms presented here represent state-wide data. It is important to highlight that there can be differences within certain regions or healthcare contexts, age groups (children <12 years versus adults) and patient groups (community versus hospitalised).

There are some caveats to note when interpreting antibiograms. These include:

  • Antibiograms summarise only the first clinical isolate for a particular organism from a patient during the sampling period (usually one year). This is to eliminate duplicates.
  • To generate statistically reliable data, each bacterial species must have 30 or more isolates, and the antimicrobial must be tested for 50% of isolates or more.
  • SA Pathology utilised 2019 EUCAST clinical breakpoints for construction of the 2020 antibiograms.

Please contact HealthAntibio@sa.gov.au with any questions regarding interpretation or if site-specific data is required.

Tips for interpretation of antibiograms


Antibiotic susceptibility testing

Please visit the SA Pathology  website for more information on the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) guidelines used to perform and interpret the antibiotic susceptibility testing performed by SA Pathology.

SA Pathology state-wide cumulative antibiograms

Urine Isolates in General Practice (2021)

Gram-Negative Blood Culture Isolates (2020)

Gram-Positive Blood Culture Isolates (2020)

Disclaimer

The antibiograms displayed on this page are intended to provide data on local South Australian antimicrobial susceptibilities. Consult clinical prescribing guidelines for advice on treatment of particular medical conditions.