Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a pathogenic S aureus strain characteristic associated with increased patient morbidity and mortality. The health care system needs to understand MRSA transmissibility in all settings to improve basic preventive measures to generate sustained reductions in invasive MRSA infections. Our primary aim was to compare intraoperative transmissibility of MRSA versus methicillin-sensitive S aureus (MSSA) isolates.
S aureus isolates (N = 173) collected from 274 randomly selected operating room environments (first and second case of the day in each operating room, a case pair) at 3 hospitals underwent systematic-phenotypic and genomic processing to identify clonally related transmission events. Confirmed transmission events were defined as at least 2 S aureus isolates obtained from ≥2 distinct intraoperative reservoirs sampled within or between cases in a study unit that were epidemiologically and clonally related. We explored the relationship between clonal transmission and methicillin resistance with Poisson regression analysis.
We identified 58 clonal transmission events. MRSA isolates were associated with increased risk of clonal transmission compared with MSSA isolates (adjusted incidence risk ratio [IRR], 1.68; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.13-2.49; P = .010; unadjusted IRR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.23-2.77; P = .003, respectively).
MRSA isolates are associated with increased risk of intraoperative transmission. Future work should examine the impact of the attenuation of intraoperative MRSA transmission on the incidence of invasive MRSA infections.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
2
4%
Other
10
20%
Unknown
17
34%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 April 2025.
All research outputs
#6,932,988
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from American Journal of Infection Control
#1,736
of 4,282 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#128,902
of 450,436 outputs
Outputs of similar age from American Journal of Infection Control
#17
of 57 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 72nd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,282 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 21.4. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 59% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 450,436 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 71% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 57 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its contemporaries.
