Staphylococcus Aureus

Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of severe infections in hospitalized patients. The spectrum of disease varies from necrotizing skin and soft tissue infection to bacteremia, endocarditis and pneumonia. Staphylococcal infection is also a feared complication in patients with prosthetic materials like artificial joints, cardiac support devices and hemodialysis catheters. In addition, S. aureus is now commonly associated with skin infection as well as pneumonia in patients in the community. Staphylococcus infections are caused either by methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) in which case treatment options include the use of beta lactams, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in which case the “gold standard” for treatment of severe infection is the drug vancomycin. Other antibiotics used in the treatment of staphylococcal infection include clindamycin, bactrim, quinolones, tetracyclines and rifampin. There is now an increasing incidence of failure in spite of optimized dosing of the “gold standard”. This can be attributable to increased vancomycin minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of S. aureus. Along with this, potential adverse effects including nephrotoxicity attributable to vancomycin, has resulted in research into new antibiotics against MRSA and development of products like linezolid, daptomycin, tigecycline and ceftaroline.

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Last date updated on September, 2024