Abstract
The nature of wound infections due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) were determined in a tertiary-care hospital in Korea in 1994, and comparisons made between isolates from the 1980s and 1990s. The most frequently isolated organism from pus (28.9%) was S. aureus, with 62.8% of these isolates being methicillin-resistant. Over 60% of the MRSA isolates were resistant to 5 of the 7 antimicrobial agents tested (penicillin G, erythromycin, tetracycline, pefloxacin and clindamycin). The minimum inhibitory concentration of methicillin for 50% of the isolates increased from 64μg/mL in 1980 to 512μg/mL in 1994, while mupirocin at a concentration of ≤0.12μg/mL inhibited all of the isolates. An oxacillin disk test occasionally gave false susceptibility when assessed for the presence of the mecA gene. The incidence of coagulase type II isolates increased from 8.9% in the 1980s to 30% in 1994, and expression class 4 from zero in 1980 to 65% in 1994, both of which are related to the increase of highly methicillin-resistant strains. A pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pattern of Smal digested chromosomal DNA documented the endemic nature of the infection.J Infect Chemother 1996;2:130-135
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