Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacter cloacae Causing Nosocomial Infections in Southwestern China: Molecular Epidemiology, Risk Factors, and Predictors of Mortality

The emergence and spread of carbapenem-resistant (CR-ECL) have posed a serious threat to clinical management. This retrospective study assessed the epidemiological characteristics of CR-ECL to explore the risk factors and predictors of mortality in patients with CR-ECL infection. We performed a retrospective 1:2 case-control study of hospitalized patients from January 2014 to December 2017. A total of 85 consecutive unique CR-ECL strains comprised the case group, and 170 matched patients with carbapenem-susceptible (CS-ECL) infection at the same period as the control group. Isolates were screened for potential resistance genes by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and molecular typing was performed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The results of drug resistance gene detection showed that was the most common carbapenem resistance gene. The MLST results showed that ST51 was the predominant epidemic type, followed by ST88. ICU admission (