Active surveillance cultures of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as a tool to predict methicillin-resistant S. aureus ventilator-associated pneumonia*

Abstract

In our study, prior methicillin-resistant S. aureus colonization as ascertained by once-weekly active surveillance culture yielded high specificity and negative predictive value, suggesting that negative active surveillance culture can accurately exclude methicillin-resistant S. aureus as an etiology in most patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia and may decrease the need for empirical methicillin-resistant S. aureus coverage in patients with suspected ventilator-associated pneumonia.