Staphylococcus Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Staphylococcus, including details on mrsa, hospitals, infection, antibiotic resistance, superbugs.

Daptomycin for eradication of a systemic infection with a methicillin-resistant-Staphylococcus aureus in a biventricular assist device recipient.

Weis F, Beiras-Fernandez A, Kaczmarek I, Sodian R, Vicol C, Reichart B, Weis M

Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany. florian.weis@med.uni-muenchen.de

The rate of infection in patients who require ventricular assist devices is estimated at more than 35%. Infections with multi-resistant organisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in ventricular assist device recipients are often difficult to treat and present a high mortality rate. Daptomycin is a new cyclic lipopeptide antibiotic, useful in gram-positive organisms resistant to standard treatment. We report a case of a 65-year-old man suffering from a dilatative cardiomyopathy and concomitant MRSA infection who received a biventricular assist device. The patient had MRSA sepsis develop resistant to conventional therapy, which was successfully treated with daptomycin.

Published 25 June 2007 in Ann Thorac Surg, 84(1): 269-70.
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