[Sensitivity of methicillin resistant staphylococci to linezolid and some other antimicrobial agents]

Linezolid is a synthetic antimicrobial agent which was introduced into clinical therapy in the early 2001. It has an inhibitory effect against most of the Gram positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin resistant enterococci. In this study, in-vitro activities of linezolid, teicoplanin, vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, erythromycin, clindamycin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and rifampicin, were tested against 164 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus spp. (96 S. aureus and 68 coagulase negative staphylococci) isolated from clinical specimens, by using disk diffusion method. None of the strains were found to be resistant to linezolid, vancomycin and teicoplanin. The resistance rates to other drugs were as follows; 80.5% to ciprofloxacin, 78.0% to gentamicin, 76.8% to erythromycin, 65.5% to clindamycin, 57.3% to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and 41.5% to rifampicin. It was concluded that linezolid can be used as an alternative drug in severe infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus spp., especially if the isolate was found to be resistant to teicoplanin or a side effect of vancomycin was observed.