Smita Sood
A major concern regarding the use of Clindamycin for Staphylococcal infections is the possible presence of inducible resistance to clindamycin. In vitro routine tests for clindamycin susceptibility may fail to detect inducible clindamycin resistance thus necessitating the need to detect such resistance by a simple D test on routine basis .The present study was conducted to determine the incidence of inducible clindamycin resistance in Staphylococcal isolates in an urban hospital in North west India. A total 129 Staphylococcal strains (Staphylococcus aureus and Coagulase Negative staphylococci) isolated from various clinical specimens were subjected to disc-approximation method (D-test) to detect inducible clindamycin resistance with standard erythromycin and clindamycin discs.15.50% inducible Clindamycin resistance phenotype, 20.93% constitutive Clindamycin resistance phenotype and 3.10% MS phenotype was detected among 129 clinical isolates of staphylococci. In case of a Staphylococcal infection, inducible MLSBi resistance in Staphylococcus aureus strains (40%) was found to be lesser than in CONS strains (60%). This study indicates the importance of D test to differentiate inducible clindamycin resistant isolates of Staphylococci so as to facilitate the optimal treatment of patients.