Immediate, Aggressive Treatment Necessary to Fight MRSA

Hospital-acquired MRSA infections have serious consequences, including increases in the risk of death and in healthcare costs. Patients in intensive care units are particularly vulnerable. Hospital mortality associated with MRSA sterile-site infections is reported to be greater than 20 percent.

Lead author Garrett E. Schramm, PharmD, says that it is crucial for physicians to aggressively identify and treat patients at risk for sterile-site MRSA infections and for physicians to be aware of local susceptibilities for both hospital and community-acquired MRSA isolates. 

“In our ICUs, we automatically treat for MRSA along with other bacteria when we have a patient with hospital-acquired infection,” says Kollef. “Obviously, not everyone will have MRSA infection, but it is so common and the consequences of not treating it upfront are so high that we treat for MRSA before its presence is confirmed.”

Kollef says there are no drawbacks to including MRSA treatment in initial therapy, as long as clinicians monitor the patient. If the culture results show no evidence of MRSA infection, then MRSA-related antibiotics can be stopped. In most patients, this is done within 48 hours.