Treatment protocols for infections, MRSA vary throughout Europe.
According to Robert Townsend, MBCHB, MSc, DTMH, FRCPath, a consultant microbiologist with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in Sheffield, U.K., there often may be no step-by-step protocol specifically designed to combat or manage MRSA infections, so all trusts should adopt a search-and-destroy approach to MRSA cases. “Strictly speaking, we do not have any fixed antibiotic protocols for the management of MRSA infections,” Townsend told Orthopaedics Today Europe. “Our guideline, for example, simply says to contact the microbiologist. “We do, however, operate a search-and-destroy screening protocol to all admissions to the trust,” he added. Townsend said, a screen protocol means that surgery can be delayed to allow de-colonization or performed under appropriate antibiotic prophylaxes. “This would not, however, prevent infection acquired on the ward postoperatively,” he said. “This is where good hand hygiene and high compliance rates with hand hygiene audits come in.”
