Predicting clearance of colonization with vancomycin-resistant Enterococci and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus by use of weekly surveillance cultures.

We analyzed surveillance cultures for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) collected during a multicenter trial to determine if three negative cultures collected at weekly intervals would predict clearance of VRE or MRSA from colonized patients. Seventy-two percent of VRE-colonized patients and 94% of MRSA-colonized patients were culture negative after three consecutive negative cultures.