Treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA): updated guidelines from the UK

The UK guidelines for the treatment of infections caused by MRSA have been updated and are published in JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance. The update reviews new evidence published since the previous UK guidelines were published over 10 years ago. It includes evidence relating to antimicrobial agents that have been licensed since then for the treatment of Gram-positive bacterial infections including MRSA. It also considers the impact on treatment of the changing epidemiology of MRSA in the UK, especially relating to circulating community strains. A striking finding from the current literature review was the paucity of good quality evidence. The current guidelines therefore represent a hybrid of varying degrees of evidence and expert opinion. Where there was no new published evidence, we have retained some of the existing recommendations. We were unable to find strong evidence of the superior efficacy of newer agents compared with that of vancomycin.