Abstract
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus （MRSA） is an important pathogen associated with nosocomial infections. Because physicians have a restricted choice of effective anti-MRSA therapies, the mortality rate owing to bacteremia caused by MRSA is 20%-50%. Japanese guidelines for the treatment of MRSA infections were published in 2013. Although the guidelines suggest first-line treatment agents according to the focus of infection, there have been no reports regarding the trends in the prescription of anti-MRSA agents. This study was undertaken to evaluate the trends in the prescription of anti-MRSA agents over 6 years.
We studied anti-MRSA agents that had been prescribed to inpatients at our facility from April 2010 to March 2016. Data on anti-MRSA agents were retrospectively reviewed with regard to the first-line treatment agent, consumption, and period in each year. The first-line treatment agent of choice was vancomycin （VCM; 70%）. Because it has been a standard drug for treating MRSA infections for more than 50 years, the use of VCM against many adaptation diseases has been approved. An increase in daptomycin （DAP） prescription has been observed over time. DAP is a new anti-MRSA drug approved in 2011. Because DAP is not inferior to VCM in the treatment of S. aureus-associated bacteremia and infective endocarditis, the guidelines recommend using DAP as the first-line treatment agent against bacteremia and infective endocarditis caused by MRSA.
In this study, we determined the current trends in the prescription of anti-MRSA agents and found an increase in the prescription of DAP as the first-line treatment agent.
