Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Susceptibility Testing Challenges and Strategies.

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is intrinsically resistant to many beta-lactam antibiotics, including carbapenems, and is resistant to aminoglycosides, which limits the therapeutic repertoire for managing S. maltophilia infections. Additionally, employing automated in vitro susceptibility testing of S. maltophilia is challenging because commercial test systems' performance is limited (A. Khan, C. A. Arias, A. Abbott, J. Dien Bard, et al., J Clin Microbiol 59:e00654-21, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.00654-21). This commentary will briefly discuss the opportunity to use automated commercial susceptibility testing systems with S. maltophilia, with a focus on how to implement their use practically while mitigating risk of error.