Prospective Nasal Screening for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Critically Ill Patients With Suspected Pneumonia

Nicholas Raush; Kevin D Betthauser; Karen Shen; Tamara Krekel; Marin H Kollef

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofab578

Prospective Nasal Screening for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Critically Ill Patients With Suspected Pneumonia

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Nov 19;9(1):ofab578. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab578. eCollection 2022 Jan.

Authors

Nicholas Raush¹, Kevin D Betthauser², Karen Shen³, Tamara Krekel², Marin H Kollef⁴

Affiliations

¹ Forrest Health Hospital, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA.
² Department of Pharmacy, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
³ Division of Hospital Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
⁴ Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Abstract

We carried out a prospective de-escalation study based on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) nasal cultures in intensive care unit patients with suspected pneumonia. Days of anti-MRSA therapy was significantly reduced in the intervention group (2 [0-3] days vs 1 [0-2] day; P < .01). Time to MRSA de-escalation was also shortened in the intervention group.

Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus; intensive care; pneumonia; screening.