MRSA Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about MRSA, including details on methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, hospitals, infection, antibiotic resistance, superbugs.

Antimicrobial therapy of Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection.

Tacconelli E, Cataldo MA

Università Cattolica S. Cuore, Istituto Malattie Infettive, Largo F. Vito 8, 00168 Roma, Italy. etacconelli@rm.unicatt.it

Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection (BSI) contributes significantly to the morbidity and mortality of in-patients. The optimal therapy for methicillin-susceptible S. aureus BSI consists of penicillins. The efficacy of these drugs is well documented from several published data and supported from a long clinical experience. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains are responsible for the majority of nosocomial BSI and are recovered with increasing frequency at hospital admission. Although glycopeptides still represent the drugs of choice, there are several concerns on the treatment of MRSA BSI: reports of clinical failure with vancomycin treatment, regardless of the in vitro susceptibility; increasing reports of MRSA strains with reduced vancomycin susceptibility; difficulty in therapeutic dosage monitoring of teicoplanin; lack of evidence on the efficacy of combination therapy. Recently, new drugs have been introduced in the therapeutic arsenal for MRSA infections, but their clinical use is not yet clearly established for BSI. The review summarises evidence on present therapeutic options for the treatment of S. aureus BSI.

Published 12 October 2007 in Expert Opin Pharmacother, 8(15): 2505-18.
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