Skip Navigation


JAC Advance Access originally published online on September 22, 2009
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2009 64(5):1029-1034; doi:10.1093/jac/dkp337
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
64/5/1029    most recent
dkp337v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rijnders, M. I. A.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Rijnders, M. I. A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Original research

Flucloxacillin, still the empirical choice for putative Staphylococcus aureus infections in intensive care units in the Netherlands

M. I. A. Rijnders, R. H. Deurenberg, M. L. L. Boumans, J. A. A. Hoogkamp-Korstanje, P. S. Beisser, E. E. Stobberingh* and on behalf of the Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Group{dagger}

Department of Medical Microbiology, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Received 28 May 2009; returned 26 June 2009; revised 5 August 2009; accepted 19 August 2009

* Corresponding author. Tel: +31-43-3876644; Fax: +31-43-3876643; E-mail: e.stobberingh{at}mumc.nl

Objectives: To determine the usefulness of flucloxacillin as empirical therapy for putative Staphylococcus aureus infections in intensive care unit (ICU) patients in the Netherlands, the antibiotic resistance of S. aureus isolates from ICUs over a 13 year period was investigated.

Methods: From 1996 to 2008, 1146 consecutive S. aureus isolates from ICU patients in 14 large referral hospitals were collected. The susceptibility to relevant antibiotics was determined by microbroth dilution according to CLSI guidelines.

Results: Resistance to flucloxacillin was only found in 12 isolates (1%). The resistance to clarithromycin, ciprofloxacin and moxifloxacin showed a significant trend over time, from 4.2% to 10.3%, from 1.0% to ~10% and from 0.0% to ~5.0%, respectively (P < 0.05). The resistance to penicillin, clindamycin and doxycycline increased over time, from 74% to 75%, from ~3.0% in 1996 to 3.2% in 2008 and from 2.2% in 1996 to 8.2% in 2008, respectively (P > 0.05). Resistance to cephalosporins, carbapenems, rifampicin and gentamicin was sporadically observed. No resistance was found to vancomycin, teicoplanin and linezolid.

Conclusions: The empirical choice of flucloxacillin in the case of putative S. aureus infections in patients admitted to ICUs in the Netherlands is still justified.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance , S. aureus , critical care , ICUs , empirical therapy

{dagger} Members are listed in the Acknowledgements section.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.