Abstract:
Introduction: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium responsable for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. It is also called oxacillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (ORSA). MRSA is any strain of Staphylococcus aureus that has developed,
through the process of natural selection, resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics, which include the
penicillins (methicillin, dicloxacillin, nafcillin, oxacillin, etc.) and the cephalosporins. Strains
unable to resist these antibiotics are classified as methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, or
MSSA. The evolution of such resistance does not cause the organism to be more intrinsically
virulent than strains of Staphylococcus aureus that have no antibiotic resistance, but resistance does
make MRSA infection more difficult to treat with standard types of antibiotics and thus more
dangerous. MRSA is especially troublesome in hospitals, prisons and nursing homes, where patients
with open wounds, invasive devices, and weakened immune systems are at greater risk of infection
than the general public. This study provides information about the aggression and dominance of this
bacteria, as well the incidence in surgical wards of Republican Clinical Hospital.
Materials and methods: The study was conducted on the principle of bacteriological analysis
o f 139 samples with Staphylococcus aureus, from the Register of laboratory investigations, Form
no. 250 / e, approved by Ministry of Health of the Republic of Moldova, no. 828 of 31.10.2011. The
data obtained were characterized and interpreted statistically: we evaluated the total number o f
cases of MRSA infection and its incidence comparing with the total number of cases.
The result of discussion: In a study of Republican Clinic Hospital, Bacteriological
Laboratory, during 2013 were registered 139 cases of infection with S.aureus, 39 of them were
found to be MRSA, that represents approximately 28% of all staphylococcal infections. Nearly half
o f the samples with MRSA belonged to patients hospitalized in the department of General Surgery -
48%, Otorhinolaryngology - 18%, Clinic -13%, and Thoracic Surgery - 11%.
Conclusion: MRSA is a „super-bacteria" extensively studied in the present, with a strong
resistance to methicillin / oxacillin, frequently hospital infection acquired resistance, the most
common in the departments of General Surgery and ENT. As in other countries, cases of MRSA are
frequent in Moldova, unfortunately they are increasing.
