In Vitro Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis Strains Isolated in Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis strains isolated at six large medical centers in Korea were examined for methicillin resistance and invitro susceptibility tests of eight other antibiotics ; cefazolin, cefamandole, cefuroxime, cefoxitin, cefotaxime, moxalactam, penicillin G and vancomycin. 271(42.5%) of 637 S. aureus strains and 80(44.7%) of 179 S. epidermidis strains showed methicillin resistance. Methicillin-resistant strains were isolated from all clinical specimens with the frequency of isolation ranging from 16% to 71%. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus(MRSA) were more frequently isolated from sputum and wound with statistical significance(P<0.05 by Student's t-test). All of MRSA and 98.8% of MRSE(methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis) were multiply resistant to one or more antimicrobials. None of MRSA and MRSE strains were resistant to vancomycin. Vancomycin was the most consistently effective antibiotic against MRSA and MRSE.