Staphylococcus aureus: resistance pattern and risk factors

Introduction: Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has emerged as a nosocomial pathogen of major worldwide importance and is an increasingly frequent cause of community-acquired infections. In this study, different risk factors and MRSA resistance pattern were investigated. Methods: In a 24 months period, all of the patients who were confined to bed in the surgery ward were included in the study. Then they were assessed to find out as if they had MRSA infection when hospitalized and once when they were discharged. Almost 48 h after admission, when patients were discharged, social and medical histories were acquired. Acquired samples were examined. Results: During the present study of 475 patients, 108 patients (22.8%) had S. aureus. About frequency of antibiotic resistance among collected S. aureus colonies, erythromycin resistance, was the most frequent antibiotic resistance, also resistance to vancomycin was 0.4% that was the least. Only hospitalization duration had statistically significant correlation with antibiotic resistance, also resistance to erythromycin had statistically significant relation with history of surgery and alcohol consumption. Of all 34 MRSA species, 22 (64.7%) samples were resistant to erythromycin, 17 (50.0%) resistant to cefoxitin, 5 (14.7%) resistant to mupirocin, 1 (2.9%) resistant to vancomycin and 1 (2.9%) resistant to linezolid. Conclusion: The results of the current study show that among hospitalized patients, there is resistance against methicillin. Since based on results of the study there is resistance against oxacillin and erythromycin in most cases, administering appropriate antibiotics have an important role in minimizing the resistance burden among bacterial species