Mortality among critically ill patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia: a multicenter cohort study in Colombia.

Objective: To evaluate risk factors associated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia emergence, its prognosis, and mortality-determining factors in critically ill patients in Colombia.

Methods: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study conducted in 2005-2008 at 16 public and private reference health care institutions in Bogotá, Colombia, that form part of a national epidemiological surveillance network and a hospital network with 4 469 beds. Methicillin-resistant emergence and mortality were analyzed using descriptive and time-to-event analysis; a multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression model was built to test the association between methicillin resistance and mortality.