Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus natural history, complications and prognosis

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

• People in good health with a healthy immune system recover well from MRSA infections.
• Immunodeficiency patients suffer from severe forms of the disease, resulting in complications.

Complications of MRSA infection depends on the site of involvement. Some of the complications include:

• Septicemia
• Endocarditis
• Osteomyelitis
• Septic arthritis
• Pneumonia
• Necrotizing fasciitis
• Toxic shock syndrome
• CA-MRSA is associated with thrombosis
• Death

The major issue is that there are a number of factors that can lead to someone’s death, and it is believed that patients with MRSA bacteraemia are sicker and will consequently have a higher mortality rate because of their underlying illness. However, several studies, including one by Blot and colleagues, have adjusted for underlying disease, and they still found MRSA bacteraemia to have a higher attributable mortality than MSSA bacteraemia.

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