Septicemia remains a serious cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients worldwide. Dealing with severe blood stream infections (BSI) is one of the intractable conditions in hospitals. The empirical treatment given remains pertinent in determining patient outcome, which becomes evidence based when substantiated by knowledge of susceptibility patterns of prevalent pathogenic organism in the set up. To determine the etiology and the prevalence of the various bacterial isolates in the patients of septicemia and to detail the antibiotic susceptibility profile. A retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital over a period of one year between January 2016 to December 2016 in which 3027 patient’s adults and children with signs and symptoms of septicemia were studied. Venous blood was collected aseptically and inoculated in brain heart infusion broth. Blood culture bottles were incubated at 37áµ’C. Blind subcultures were performed after 24, 48 hours & subsequently on the 7^th day. The plates were incubated at 37áµ’C for 24 hrs. Organisms were identified by standard biochemical methods. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed by modified Stokes method. Amongst 3027 patients, 1051 (16.09%) had positive blood cultures. Gram negative aerobes 469 (45%) like Acinetobacter spp. 164 (34%); Klebsiella pneumoniae 135 (28%), Escherichia 123 (26%) followed by Salmonella typhi 29 (6.1%). While in gram positive aerobes have most commonly staphylococcus aureus 188 (40%) followed by Enterococcus spp 20 (4.2%). Acinetobacter spp. and Escherichia coli showed decreased sensitivity to cephalosporin (30-35%) whereas Klebsiella pneumoniae showed alarmingly low sensitivity to all groups of antibiotics. Within 188 (40%) Staphylococcus aureus isolates, 61 (32%) were Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) but sensitive to vancomycin and linezolid. Streptococcus pneumoniae exhibited 89% of sensitivity to penicillin G. The study highlights an increasing trend in drug resistance in bacterial isolates from blood. Routine surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility is warranted to formulate antibiotic policies according to local antibiogram.

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