Pseudomonas aeruginosa with decreased levels of meropenem susceptibility were identified in the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh in 2002. Within the affected group of patients, none had meropenem-resistant P. aeruginosa when they arrived in the intensive care unit (ICU). Seven isolates from the ICU were collected five months after the decreased susceptibility to meropenem was identified. In order to investigate if resistance was a problem in P. aeruginosa throughout Edinburgh, both in hospital- and community-acquired isolates, a prospective study was performed. The susceptibilities of 104 P. aeruginosa to imipenem, meropenem, ceftazidime, piperacillin/tazobactam and ciprofloxacin were investigated. Meropenem had the highest activity against these isolates and the lowest MIC(90) (2 mg/L), followed by imipenem (4 mg/L), ciprofloxacin (8 mg/L), piperacillin/tazobactam (16 mg/L) and ceftazidime (32 mg/L). These isolates were also analysed genotypically by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Five of the seven ICU isolates were identified, one isolate was 98% similar and the other was 85% similar to the ICU isolates. One isolate from the prospective study had approximately 90% genotype similarity to the six ICU isolates with >/=98% similarity. There was no clonality within the strains from the prospective study and clusters with >90% similarity comprised at five or less isolates. Isolates with the same resistance patterns did not necessarily have the same genotypic profile. Strains isolated from different patients on the same day were also not necessarily related. The conclusions of this study were that while the seven ICU isolates were clonal or highly related, they were not widespread throughout Edinburgh and the P. aeruginosa within Edinburgh were highly varied.