MRSA as a rare cause of vaginitis.

We describe a 26-year-old otherwise healthy woman with MRSA vaginitis. Traditional MRSA risk factors were absent and additional screening sites were negative. Patient was treated successfully with oral antibiotics combined with topical lactic acid emulsion. Because her partner appeared to have solitary MRSA carriage on the glans, a suggestion of sexual transmission was made. He was treated successfully with topical mupirocin ointment. Although solitary vaginal MRSA carriage and infection seems to be rare and its clinical impact is yet undefined, clinicians should consider adding the genitourinary tract to traditional screening sites in case of recurrent MRSA infections.

Surgical site infections in orthopedic surgery: the effect of mupirocin nasal ointment in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study.

The objective of this study was to determine whether use of mupirocin nasal ointment for perioperative eradication of Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage is effective in preventing the development of surgical site infections (SSIs). A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled design was used. Either mupirocin or placebo nasal ointment was applied twice daily to 614 assessable patients from the day of admission to the hospital until the day of surgery. A total of 315 and 299 patients were randomized to receive mupirocin and placebo, respectively. Eradication of nasal carriage was significantly more effective in the mupirocin group (eradication rate, 83.5% versus 27.8%). In the mupirocin group, the rate of endogenous S. aureus infections was 5 times lower than in the placebo group (0.3% and 1.7%, respectively; relative risk, 0.19; 95% confidence interval, 0.02-1.62). Mupirocin nasal ointment did not reduce the SSI rate (by S. aureus) or the duration of hospital stay.