Antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from skin infections

The antimicrobial susceptibility of 229 strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from various skin infections was determined against 22 antimicrobial agents by the agar dilution method. The clinical isolates were most sensitive to vancomycin, teicoplanin, mupirocin and fusidic acid. No strains were resistant to vancomycin or teicoplanin. Three strains were highly resistant (MIC > or =100 mg/l) to mupirocin and eight strains to fusidic acid. The MIC(50) of all antimicrobials, except for gentamicin, were below 3.13 mg/l. The incidence of resistance to penicillin, cephalosporins and clindamycin ranged from 20 to 30%. The occurrence of gentamicin, erythromycin and roxithromycin resistance was high at 55.2, 39.6 and 39.1%, respectively. Methicillin resistance occurred in 21.0% of strains. The incidence of organisms with MIC > or =3.13 mg/l to oxacillin was 24.3%. These results were comparable to the average rate of MRSA in Japanese dermatological specimens.