Staphylococcus AureusRectal Carriage and its Association with Infections in Patients in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit and a Liver Transplant Unit

Background:The role of rectal carriage ofStaphylococcus aureusas a risk factor for nosocomialS. aureusinfections in critically ill patients has not been fully discerned.Methods:Nasal and rectal swabs forS. aureuswere obtained on admission and weekly thereafter until discharge or death from 204 consecutive patients admitted to the surgical intensive care unit and liver transplant unit.Results:Overall, 49.5% (101 of 204) of the patients never harboredS. aureus, 21.6% (44 of 204) were nasal carriers only, 3.4% (7 of 204) were rectal carriers only, and 25.5% (52 of 204) were both nasal and rectal carriers. Infections due toS. aureusdeveloped in 15.7% (32 of 204) of the patients; these included 3% (3 of 101) of the non-carriers, 18.2% (8 of 44) of the nasal carriers only, 0% (0 of 7) of the rectal carriers only, and 40.4% (21 of 52) of the patients who were both nasal and rectal carriers (P= .001). Patients with both rectal and nasal carriage were significantly more likely to developS. aureusinfection than were those with nasal carriage only (odds ratio, 3.9; 95% confidence interval, 1.18 to 7.85;P= .025). By pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, the infecting rectal and nasal isolates were clonally identical in 82% (14 of 17) of the patients withS. aureusinfections.Conclusions:Rectal carriage represents an underappreciated reservoir forS. aureusin patients in the intensive care unit and liver transplant recipients. Rectal plus nasal carriage may portend a greater risk forS. aureusinfections in these patients than currently realized.