Results of nasal screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus during a neonatal intensive care unit outbreak.

Recent reports have implicated community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as a cause of outbreaks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This study was conducted to determine whether community-associated MRSA caused such an outbreak in our NICU and the extent of nasal colonization with MRSA among exposed babies and health care workers. MRSA recovered from infected and colonized babies were genotyped by pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE).

Large vegetations in Staphylococcus lugdunensis endocarditis.

Staphylococcus lugdunensis, a recently described coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, is increasingly being recognized as a cause of a highly aggressive and destructive form of native valve endocarditis. We describe a pediatric case associated with large vegetations requiring surgical intervention. Careful attention to microbiologic methods will avoid misidentification and inappropriate management.

Serious postpartum infection due to MRSA in an asymptomatic carrier: case report and review.

Infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become a worldwide problem and is no longer acquired only in a hospital setting. Community-associated MRSA is an emerging pathogen of increasing interest to both obstetricians and neonatologists, reported in all three trimesters of pregnancy and postpartum, and in neonatal intensive care units, leading to severe outcomes, including neonatal death. This case report describes a serious and potentially life-threatening infection (including wound abscess, septicemia, septic thrombophlebitis, and septic pulmonary emboli) that developed in an otherwise healthy postpartum woman who had screened positive for MRSA in nares, vagina, and rectum at the time of her prior admission in labor as part of a research study.

Successful treatment of Corynebacterium striatum endocarditis with daptomycin plus rifampin.

Objective: To report a case of Corynebacterium striatum endocarditis that was treated successfully with daptomycin plus rifampin following an unsuccessful attempt at vancomycin desensitization and failure of linezolid therapy.

Case Summary: A 46-year-old woman with hemodialysis-dependent chronic renal failure was admitted for a graft-related infection. She presented with C.