Evaluation of methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus infection in children

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to investigate cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections and also to draw attention to community-acquired MRSA in patients hospitalized at our Pediatric Clinics.METHODS: The patients who had meaningful S. aureus growth in the cultures taken from the patients who were hospitalized in Uludag University Medical Faculty Children's Health and Diseases Clinics between October 2012-February 2017 were included in the study. SPSS 17.0 program was used for statistical analysis.RESULTS: A total of 31 S. aureus infections were detected during this period. Seventeen (54.8%) of the cases with S. aureus infection were health care related. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus was present in 12 (70.5%) of the healthcare-acquired staphylococcal infections. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus was detected in 12 (85.7%) of 14 community-acquired staphylococcal infections. Eighty-three percent (n=10) of community-acquired MRSA infections were male and their mean age was 67.6 +/- 77.8 months (median 26, range 1-204). Sixty-seven percent (n=8) of healthcare-acquired MRSA (HAMRSA) were male and their mean age was 106.7 +/- 81.3 months (median 108, range 0-222). Most of the community-acquired MRSA patients were diagnosed with soft tissue infection. In the HA-MRSA cases, bacteraemia was the most common infection. Sixty-nine percent of the soft tissue infections originated from CA-MRSA, 73% of the other infections originating from HA-MRSA (p=0.041). MRSA associated mortality was not detected in the cases.CONCLUSIONS: Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (85.7%) was found to be high in community-acquired staphylococcal infections in our study. Most of the community-acquired MRSA was detected in patients with soft tissue infections, followed by septicemia. Bacteraemia was the most frequent healthcare-acquired MRSA infection.