Biofilm formation and susceptibility towards antimicrobial agents in local clinical isolates of staphylococcus epidermidis

A total of 86 Staphylococcus epidermidis strains were isolated from patients in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah, Klang, between December 2010 to March 2011. It was observed that 47% of these isolates were able to form biofilm with 14% displaying very strong biofilm formation, another 14% showed strong biofilm formation while 7% and 12% were moderate and weak biofilm producers respectively. Except for weak producers, the biofilm producing strains were further characterized for their susceptibility profiles against four antibiotics; gentamicin, erythromycin, oxacillin and rifampicin. Highest resistance pattern was observed in oxacillin where 97% of the S. epidermidis strains were found to be resistant to this antibiotic while 77% and 70% of the strains were resistant to erythromycin and gentamicin respectively. Rifampicin was found to be most effective against S. epidermidis where resistance was observed in only 40% of the isolates. In addition, more than 30% of these isolates displayed multi resistant to all four antibiotics tested.