Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy
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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. · Jun 1999
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialRandomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial to evaluate the efficacy of mupirocin for eradicating carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Mupirocin has been widely used for the clearance of nasal methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriage during outbreaks, but no placebo-controlled trial has evaluated its value for eradicating MRSA carriage at multiple body sites in settings where MRSA is not epidemic. In a 1,500-bed teaching hospital with endemic MRSA, 102 patients colonized with MRSA were randomized into a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial and treated with either mupirocin (group M) or placebo (group P) applied to the anterior nares for 5 days; both groups used chlorhexidine soap for body washing. Follow-up screening, susceptibility testing, and genotyping were performed to evaluate treatment success, mupirocin or chlorhexidine resistance, and exogenous recolonization. ⋯ One mupirocin treatment failure was due to exogenous MRSA recolonization. No MRSA isolate showed chlorhexidine resistance or high-level mupirocin resistance; however, we observed an association (P = 0.003) between low-level mupirocin resistance at study entry (prevalence, 23%) and subsequent treatment failure in both study arms. These results suggest that nasal mupirocin is only marginally effective in the eradication of multisite MRSA carriage in a setting where MRSA is endemic.
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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. · Jun 1999
Comparative StudyEmergence of antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa: comparison of risks associated with different antipseudomonal agents.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of nosocomial infections. The risk of emergence of antibiotic resistance may vary with different antibiotic treatments. To compare the risks of emergence of resistance associated with four antipseudomonal agents, ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime, imipenem, and piperacillin, we conducted a cohort study, assessing relative risks for emergence of resistant P. aeruginosa in patients treated with any of these drugs. ⋯ Hazard ratios for emergence of resistance to each individual agent associated with treatment with the same agent were as follows: ceftazidime, 0.8 (P = 0.7); ciprofloxacin, 9.2 (P = 0.04); imipenem, 44 (P = 0.001); and piperacillin, 5.2 (P = 0.01). We concluded that there were evident differences among antibiotics in the likelihood that their use would allow emergence of resistance in P. aeruginosa. Ceftazidime was associated with the lowest risk, and imipenem had the highest risk.