Abstract

Staphylococci are considered significant pathogens in the infections that occur in human body. Special therapeutic significance of methicillin-resistant strains, which are also resistant to all β-lactam antibiotics, inspired the study on the incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (MRCNS) in clinical material gathered during 3 consecutive years. Disk-diffusion method, with the use of disks with 5 µg oxacillin was applied for the determination of methicillin resistance, according to the guidelines of National Centre for Drug-resistance. The interpretation of methicillin-resistance was based on NCCLS tables. Among 1175 S. aureus strains, 15.2%; were classified as MRSA. During subsequent years of the study, statistically significant decrease in MRSA incidence was observed in the urine samples and other clinical materials. 43.8%; out of 242 CNS strains were classified as MRCNS. In consecutive years, there was a statistically significant increase in the incidence of MRCNS in the materials both from ambulatory and hospitalised patients.

Keywords: other materials, Urine, coagulase-negative staphylococci, S. aureus