What is the treatment for MRSA?

Answer 1

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections are difficult to treat and may require hospitalization. Most people who are otherwise healthy will recover completely, with proper treatment. Attention to hygiene is important to prevent re-infection.

Answer 2

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA):

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is an antibiotic resistant staph infection which can kill. The meaning of antibiotic resistant means that the drug does not respond to treatment and it does not cure infections of the blood, heart, lungs or urine. Nor does it treat area(s) of recent injury or surgery sites. Thereby individuals with MRSA infections do not respond t.

MRSA Treatments: Treatment is difficult due to decades of overuse and abuse of antibiotic treatments. The type of treatment depends of the type of MRSA and requires use the appropriate antibiotic therapy, which can include oral medication and intravenous (IV) antibiotics, and some topical antimicrobial medications; however the infection may require drainage of the infected area and the packing of the wound.

MRSA Medications: Vancomycin has been the treatment of choice for MRSA for some time; however this drug is beginning to fail, as it becomes more drug resistant in some forms of MRSA. Another drug that is used is Targocid (teicoplanin) which is a glycopeptides/bactericidal antibiotic. Zyvox (linezolid) is an injection used with some forms of MRSA treatment; it is used in combination with other intravenous (IV) solutions. Zithromox (azithromycin) is used to treat several types of MRSA; some doctors question its effectiveness. Some drugs are only given by IV, some are only given orally, and some are given both orally and by IV. There are also, some topicalantimicrobial treatments that are used when packing an open sore after it has been cleaned of drainage; these treatments can include Povidone-iodine, Bactroban, and Altabax.

Answer 3

Fortunately, MRSA still reacts to certain antibiotic treatment, which your physician will prescribe. In particular cases, antibiotic therapy is not needed, as the abscess is superficial and may be cleared off with a minor medical procedure. When the infection has spread and complications have developed, the treatment will be more detailed, spread over a long period.

Answer 4

Because it has a high resistance to antibiotics, killing off all MRSA cells proves to be very difficult. So, a common route is to surgically remove affected tissue and then aggressively administer less common antibiotics to try and kill any remaining MRSA

Answer 5

These bacteria are resistant to most antibiotics and can be found on the skin. When the skin is broken during surgery,or a surgical implant is inserted, bacteria can breed deep inside the body and are almost impossible to eradicate. Absolute cleanliness of operating theatres and surgical instruments is paramount. It is now becoming impossible to adequately sterilise equipment and so disposable instruments will become the norm.

Answer 6

MRSA (or methicillin-resistant Staphlococcus aureus) is a highly antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria. The vast majority of us will carry 'normal' Staph. aureus on our skin - a so-called 'commensal' bacteria. In most of us, this does no harm and we happily live side-by-side with this organism. However, if there's a break in the skin (such as a navel piercing or a cut) the bacteria can make their way beneath the skin where they can cause infection. This will cause most of the 'cardinal signs of inflammation' - redness, heat, swelling and pain. Infections will often cause a golden discharge from the area, or a golden scaling on top of the skin (such as in inpetigo). In fact, it is this 'golden exudate' that gives the bacteria its name: "aurum" means "gold" in Latin.

Staph. aureus is a gram POSITIVE bacteria - meaning it has certain properties in its cell wall that other gram NEGATIVE bacteria do not and so stains differently in the lab. The importance of this that it should be sensitive (i.e. killed by) penicillin-type antibiotics. This is why the first-line treatment for skin infections is usually flucloxacillin.

MRSA is a different beast - it is resistent to the vast majority of normal antibiotics we can use. It means we have to treat patients with much broader-spectrum antibiotics (such as vancomycin). These are less specific and tend to wipe out all sorts of other 'good' bacteria. You might say that this is inconsequential - why do I WANT bacteria in my body anyway? Well, the so-called 'good' bacteria advocated repeatedly on the television live happily in our intestines and don't cause us any harm. In fact, we NEED them their as they compete for resources with other 'bad' bacteria. Kill off the good bacteria and you've got a problem - nasty resistant bacteria can now take hold. One of the nastiest of these is called Chlostridium difficile, which causes chronic diarrhoea and must be treated rapidly. It's highly infectious and in the UK is responsible for many deaths every year. It is not killed by alcohol gel found on hospital wards, and can only be removed from the hands by very rigourous washing - so you can see it spreads very easily.

In terms of MRSA, the best policy is prevention - it's hard to treat it once you've got it, but avoiding contact in the first place is a good idea. It's really just back to basics hygiene: good hand washing (and regular, routine use of alcohol gel in hospitals), proper sterilisation of hospital instruments and appropriate dress code for hospital staff. That is why the majority of hospitals in the UK do not allow staff to wear neck ties, and require them to keep their arms bare below the elbow. Many are also resorting to the use of surgical scrubs.

Many hospitals also carry out MRSA screening for patients who are going to be admitted. This means taking swabs from the throat, nose and groin area. Just as many of us already carry normal Staph. aureus on our skin, so too do some of us carry the nastier MRSA strain of the bacteria. It's not a big deal, but patients testing positive for MRSA will usually be cared for in a private room and extra precautions taken by staff to prevent cross-spread of infection to other patients.