CORR Insights^®: Impact of Preoperative MRSA Screening and Decolonization on Hospital-acquired MRSA Burden

Excerpt

I along with my coauthors previously reported our experience with institutional prescreening for detection and eradication of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the setting of a large orthopaedic specialty hospital with a predominantly elective patient population [1]. At that time we reported our ability to reduce our surgical site infection rate from 0.45% in the control period to 0.19% during the screening period. Our study has not been replicated elsewhere, and with the high pressure to reduce infection rates, it makes great sense to have corroborating evidence presented. The current article clearly recognizes that MRSA and methicillin-sensitive S aureus (MSSA) are major problems. They, too, have shown that an institutional screening program is possible, but they did not report a reduction in infection rates with their program. …