Abstract
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a leading cause of nosocomial infections, has been increasingly recognized in communities of the United States. This article will review the clinical spectrum and treatment of MRSA infections in children in the context of recent epidemiological changes of MRSA infections. In general, community-associated (CA) MRSA most frequently causes skin and soft tissue infections and has an increased association with invasive infections, particularly pneumonia and musculoskeletal infections. Hospital-associated (HA) MRSA strains tend to be associated with bloodstream infections, pneumonia, and surgical site infections. Different from the United States, CA-MRSA infections are not common in Korea (only 5.9%); however, there are some CA-MRSA clones that are different from HA- MRSA clones in Korea and from CA-MRSA clones in other countries. The treatment of MRSA infections should be guided by antimicrobial susceptibility testing, the site of infection, and the infection severity. Vancomycin is the treatment of choice for invasive MRSA infections. Other agents such as trimethoprim- sulfamethoxazole, clindamycin, linezolid, quinupristin-dalfopristin, and daptomycin have been used for some conditions.