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Updated: May 15, 2026

Experimental Endocarditis Model of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Rat
Published on: June 4, 2012
Risk factors for Staphylococcus aureus surgical site infection during an outbreak in patients undergoing
Manal A Tadros1, Victoria R Williams, Suzanne Plourde
1Department of Microbiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. Manal.tadros@utoronto.ca
Background:
This study examined the epidemiology of an outbreak of Staphylococcus aureus surgical site infections (SSI) after cardiovascular surgery, and analyzed risk factors for S aureus SSIs.
Methods:
This was a retrospective case-control study to determine risk factors for S aureus SSI in 38 patients who developed S aureus SSI during the outbreak period, compared with age-, sex-, and procedure-matched controls. S aureus strains were typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.
Results:
A total of 38 patients had S aureus SSI. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis identified transmission of 3 S aureus clones (2 MSSA clones and 1 MRSA clone). Twenty-one health care workers were carriers of outbreak strains. In multivariate analysis, the significant risk factors for S aureus SSI were previous cardiac surgery (odds ratio, 7.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-52.16) and long procedure duration (odds ratio, 1.49; 95% confidence interval, 1.00-2.21).
Conclusions:
This outbreak demonstrates evidence of nosocomial transmission of 3 clones of S aureus in the setting of incomplete compliance with recommended standard perioperative infection control measures, associated with a high prevalence of staff carriage of the predominant outbreak strains.
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