ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the bacteriological features and the epidemiology of methicillin－ resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in patients with impetigo, and provide evidence for selection of appropriate agents for treating impetigo and its complications. Methods Two hundred and forty－ six out- patients with impetigo were surveyed. Cultures were obtained from impetiginous lesions. Antibiotic susceptibility tests on 212 S.aureus isolates were performed by standard agar dilution testing (MIC). Results In a total of 246 isolates, 87.0％ yielded S.aureus alone, 2.0％ S.aureus and Group A beta－ hemolytic streptococcus (GABHS), 1.6％ GABHS alone, 4.1％ Staphylococcus epidermidis. Fifteen antimicrobial agents were used in the susceptibility tests. One hundred percent of S. aureus isolates were resistant to penicillin, 87.7％ were resistant to erythromycin, followed by clindamycin (75.5％ ), tetracycline (63.2％ ), chloramphenicol (54.2％ ), ampicillin－ sulbactam (44.8％ ), oxacillin (30.2％ ), ciprofloxacin (12.8％ ), cefotaxime (0.9％ ), fusidic acid (0.9％ ) and gentamicin (0.9％ ). None of the S.aureus isolates was resistant to vancomycin, cefazolin, cefuroxime and mupirocin. Sixty- four MRSA strains were isolated. No vancomycin resistant S.aureus strain was found. Conclusions Penicillin, erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol and ampicillin－ sulbactam prove to be no longer the appropriate therapeutic agents. Cephalosporin, mupirocin and fusidic acid might be the good choice for treatment of impetigo in our region.