Staphylococcal septicaemia in burns

Risk factors for, and the effect of MRSA colonization on the clinical outcomes of severely burnt patients

“…Thus, there could be a close association between the relatively high prevalence of bacteremic episodes of MRSA positive patients and survival. Such a connection has previously been described in burns with a mortality rate as high as 25% [44,45]. In our study however, only 8.8% of the patients testing positive for MRSA developed a bacteremia after a median of 11 days post-admission, and none of these patients died.…”

The impact of inhalation injury in patients with small and moderate burns

“…Global immunosuppression increases the rate of infection. Moreover, the burn wound is particularly susceptible to bacterial colonization and infection due to the physical disruption of the normal skin barrier and the accompanying reduction in cell-mediated immunity [21].…”

Burn Wound Infections

“…MRSA, methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, and multiply resistant gram-negative bacteria that possess several types of beta-lactamases, including extendedspectrum beta-lactamases, ampC beta-lactamases, and metallobeta-lactamases, have been emerging as serious pathogens in hospitalized patients (84,92,126,152,190,241,358). Fungal pathogens, particularly Candida spp., have increasingly become important opportunistic pathogens due to the use of broad-spectrum topical and systemic agents when infection occurs in the burned patient and have demonstrated increasing degrees of antifungal drug resistance (10,19,233,302).…”

“…Burn patients with sepsis from invasive burn wound infection have transient or intermittent bacteremia or fungemia from seeding of microorganisms into the bloodstream, but positive blood cultures are a late sign of infection (41,109,123,152,270,444). Bacteremia also occurs from endogenous intestinal flora because of the decreased blood flow and gut perfusion that occur following thermal injury (248,266,371).…”