the prevalence of antibiotic resistance to polymyxins in clinical isolates of acinetobacter baumannii in iran and the world: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most important opportunistic pathogens responsible for several nosocomial infections. a major problem in treatment is antibiotic resistance. methods: by searching international and national databases, including pubmed, google scholar, web of science, sid, magiran, irandoc and iranmedex, 38 articles between years 2002 to 2016 published world-wide were extracted and analyzed using the metaanalysis method and random effects model. the heterogeneity of studies was assessed using the i2 index. data were analyzed with the r and stata (ver 11/2) software. results: forty-three articles were selected for this study. drug-resistance of acinetobacter baumannii towards polymyxin was reported as 5%, yet for colistin 4% was estimated. resistance rates to polymyxin and colistin in the continent of america and asia was 6% and sensitivity rate to polymyxin and colistin was 96% and 80%, respectively. conclusions: given that drug resistance rate of acinetobacter baumannii to polymyxin and colistin in this study was 5% and 4%, respectively, thus indicating high sensitivity of acinetobacter baumannii to these antibiotics, this group can be administered as appropriate therapeutic agents against these bacteria.