PREVALENCE OF NASAL COLONIZATION OF METHICILLIN-RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS (MRSA) IN PATIENTS ON CHRONIC HEMODIALYSIS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus is a major pathogen in the hemodialysis patient group and its colonization results in high risk of blood stream infection which increases all cause mortality in these patients. Anterior nares provide a suitable medium for these bacteria to survive and colonize. This study was conducted to check the occurrence of nasal colonization of MRSA in patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis through different vascular accesses and its association with different risk factors such as diabetes, previous hospitalizations, antibiotic use and duration of hemodialysis. This study was conducted at a dialysis center of a quaternary care hospital with a sample size of 109 involving non-probability consecutive sampling technique. All data was analyzed through SPSS version 22. p-value of <0.05 was considered significant with a confidence interval of 95%. 73% of the patients were male and 25% were diabetic. The participants were divided into different age groups The occurrence of staphylococcus aureus was found out to be 26% out of which 11% were MRSA positive and 15% were MSSA positive. There was no significant association between the incidence of MRSA with age, gender, AV access, history of diabetes, previous hospitalizations or antibiotic use.