Tolerance of Vancomycin for Surgical Prophylaxis in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery and Incidence of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus Colonization

According to the National Nosocomial InfectionSurveillance (NNIS) system of the Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention, rates of surgical site infec-tions after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) or valve replacement surgery average 1.2–5.1 cases per 100 surg-eries.1 Mortality rates due to severe surgical site infections range from 10 % to 47%.2,3 Cephalosporin antibiotics are considered the drugs of choice for surgical prophylaxis of surgical site infections, as they are generally well tolerated and have broad antibacterial action against commonly iso-lated organisms such as Staphylococcus aureus and Staphy-lococcus epidermidis.4,5 In recent years, an increased inci-dence in methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and hig