RESUMEN
Abstract Staphylococcus aureus is an important cause of bloodstream infections. Therefore, the main purpose of this work was to characterize a collection of 139 S. aureus isolates from bloodstream infections in two public hospitals in relation to their antimicrobial susceptibility profile, staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec types, and clonal relationship. Methicillin resistance and resistance to other 12 agents were accessed by the disk diffusion test. Minimum inhibitory concentration to mupirocin was also determined. The SCCmec types were accessed by multiplex PCR, and the clonal relationship was determined by pulsed field gel electrophoresis method and restriction modification system characterization. Besides, multilocus sequence typing was performed for representative methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates. The military hospital showed a dissemination of the New York/Japan (USA100/ST5/CC5/SCCmecII) lineage associated to multidrug resistance, including mupirocin resistance, and the teaching hospital presented polyclonal and non-multidrug resistant MRSA isolates. Complete substitution of the Brazilian endemic clone by other lineages was found in both hospitals. These findings can highlight differences in policy control and prevention of infections used in the hospitals and a change in the epidemiological profile of MRSA in Brazilian hospitals, with the replacement of BEC, a previously well-established clone, by other lineages.