What is the antibiotic of choice for serious infection with methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)?
The term Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) indicates that the strain of S. aureus is resistant to methicillin, but in practical terms it means that it is resistant to all of the anti staphylococcal penicillins. The term MRSA is slightly paradocxical because methicillin is not really used clinically for pharmacological reasons, and anti staphylococcal penicillins such as flucloxacillin (trade name flopen) are used in Australia, so may be we should say FRSA? We don’t because MRSA has historical significance and people know what it implies. Most strains of MRSA are also resistant to a broad range of other antibiotics as well as methicillin (flucloxacillin), so in some ways, it is useful to think of MRSA as signifying multiply resistant S. aureus. In practical terms, the only antibiotic to which MRSA is reliably sensitive is vancomycin, so this is the drug of choice for infection with MRSA, and may be the drug of choice for infection with any S. aureus infection in hospita
