[Guidelines for the treatment on infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus]

Infections due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have undergone important changes in the last five years that have influenced the choice of therapy: i) increase of their frequency in hospital-associated settings and, more recently, in community settings; ii) better knowledge of clinical implications of the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of vancomycin; iii) improvement of current standard methods for rapid detection of MRSA in clinical samples; iv) clear evidence that vancomycin is losing efficacy against MRSA with MIC > 1 microg/mL; and v) appearance of new antibiotics suitable for use in these infections (linezolid, daptomycin, tigecyclin). Under this situation guidelines for the treatment of common infections caused by MRSA appear to be necessary to improve the efficacy and reduce the mortality.