Prevalence of Nasal Colonization of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Patients on Chronic Hemodialysis

Abstract

Background and Objective: Staphylococcus aureus (S. Aureus) is a major pathogen which is often colonized in
the haemodialysis patient group which later on cause a widespread infection. Hence, leading to increased morbidity
and mortality among these patients. This study was conducted to check the occurrence of nasal colonization
of MRSA in patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis through different vascular accesses and its association
with different risk factors such as diabetes, previous hospitalizations, antibiotic use and duration of hemodialysis.
Methods: This study was conducted at a dialysis center of a quaternary care hospital with a sample size of
109 involving non-probability consecutive sampling technique. Data was collected over the period of one
month in January and February 2022. A swab was rotated four times 1.5cm deep inside in the anterior nares of
cach patient. All data was analyzed through SPSS version 22. p-value of <0.05 was considered significant
with a confidence interval of 95%.
Results: 73% of the patients were male and 25% were diabetic. The participants were divided into different
age groups. The occurrence of staphylococcus aureus was found out to be 26% out of which 11% were MRSA
positive and 15% were MSSA positive. There was no association between the presence of these pathogens
with duration of dialysis and type of vascular access along with presence of comobidities, previous use of
antibiotics and episode of recent hospitalizations.
Conclusion: It can be concluded that approximately one fourth of the patients had nasal colonization of
staphylococcus aureus with considerable patients having MRSA or MSSA positive. There was no significant
association between the incidence of MRSA with age, gender, AV access, history of diabetes, previous
hospitalizations or antibiotic use. These findings are contrary to the expected association with these risk factors.