Usefulness of mecA gene test in the surgical infectious disease setting

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia cases have a poor prognosis, and if MRSA is detected, the mortality rate is even higher. In addition to S. aureus, coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) are also frequently detected as causative organisms in surgical infections. In the present study, we investigated the usefulness of the mecA gene in 29 cases of surgical infections (21 MSSA, 3 MRSA, and 5 CNS) in which Staphylococcus spp. were detected from blood cultures. In all cases, initial therapeutic drugs were considered based on the mecA gene test results, and antimicrobial agents were optimized before susceptibility testing was performed.