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Diseases » Medical misadventure » Research

Cure Research for Medical misadventure

Medical Research Breakthroughs and Medical misadventure

Screening not really beneficial: The University of Geneva Hospitals and Medical School, Geneva in their new study have found that hospital acquired infection rates in surgical patients did not significantly reduce following screening of patients on admission to hospital for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) thus questioning the belief of screening all patients. Until now, there has been no controlled trial to test the idea that rapid screening for MRSA reduces cross-infection and increases the chances of pre-operative disease prevention. The study involved 21,754 surgical patients from 12 different surgical wards. Each ward was designated either a control group or an intervention group for 9 months, and then they swapped over for another 9 months, so each ward had 9 months of control period and 9 months of intervention period. The results showed that 94 per cent of the patients admitted to wards in intervention periods were rapid tested for MRSA using a molecular method, and 515 of MRSA screened patients tested positive. Thus, to find 1 MRSA carrier who had not been identified before, 30 patients would have to be screened. 93 patients were infected with hospital acquired MRSA in wards during intervention periods compared with 76 patients during control periods. The rate of hospital acquired MRSA infection and MRSA surgical site infection did not change significantly between the intervention periods and the control periods. Thus proving that there was no added benefit for widespread rapid screening on admission compared with standard MRSA control alone in preventing nosocomial [hospital acquired] MRSA infections in a large surgical department. Although the researchers suggested that effectiveness could be increased if MRSA screening was targeted to surgical patients who undergo elective procedures with a high risk of MRSA infection.