The present study was carried out to evaluate the in-vitro susceptibility of isolated gram-negative bacteria from hospitalized patients with urinary tract infection (UTI) to ofloxacin in comparison with ceftriaxone and other conventional antibiotics. Gram-negative rods (408 samples) isolated from hospitalized patients with UTI from September 1998 to Janury 1999 and their sensitivity to various antibiotics were determined. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (9MIC) of ofloxacin and ceftriaxone were evaluated according to National Committee for Clinical Laboratoty Standard (NCCLS) recommendations. The predominant organisms were Escherichia coli (68.3%), Pseudomonas spp (15.4%), Enterobacter spp (6.7%), Proteus spp (6.2%) and Klebsiella (3.4%). The percentage of resistance for all strains was 86.8%, 51.6%, 27% for ampicillin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoazazole and nalidixic acid respectively, 24.8% for nitrofurantoine, 27.2% for gentamicin, 13.6% for ofloxacin and 14% for ceftriaxocine. Enterobacteriacea was more sensitive to ofloxacin (99%), but Pseudomonas spp, were weakly sensitive to ofloxacin (60%), Also in the case of ceftriaxone, enterobacteriaxea was the most sensitive bacteria (90%) and sensitivity of E.coli and pseudomonas spp. To ceftriaxone were 86.5% and 70% respectively. In our study there was no significant difference between ofloxacin and ceftriaxone (P=0.88). Both antibiotics had in-vitro broad activity against gram-negative bacteria in hospitalized patients with UTI. Larger-scale studies are recommended to compare the effect of oral ofloxacin with parental ceftriaxone in patients.
