Background: The aim of this study was to assess the association of methicillin resistance and penicillinase production with clinical characteristics and outcome of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia.

Methods: For 126 patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia, 378 age- and gender-matched controls with methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) bacteremia were selected. Of controls, 126 had bacteremia caused by penicillin-susceptible strains (PSSA) and 252 by penicillinase-producing strains (PRSA). Underlying diseases, clinical course and mortality were retrospectively assessed.

Results: Patients with MRSA bacteremia were more often smokers than patients with MSSA bacteremia (OR 2.34, 95% CI 1.27-4.32). MRSA bacteremia was more often healthcare-associated (OR 4.23, 95% CI 2.47-7.24), associated with central venous catheters (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.27-3.47), glucocorticoid therapy (OR 1.82, 95% CI 1.12-2.93) and prior surgery (OR 2.32, 95% CI 1.43-3.76). Patients with MRSA bacteremia received appropriate empiric antibiotic (31%) less often than controls (98%). Mortality within 28 days was higher in MRSA bacteremia (26.8%) than in MSSA bacteremia (15.5%) (OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.20-3.34), PRSA bacteremia (17.0%) (OR 1.79 95% CI 1.04-3.09) or PSSA bacteremia (12.5%) (OR 2.56 95% CI 1.27-5.15). The difference remained after adjusting for underlying diseases and foci. There was no significant difference in clinical course between PRSA and PSSA bacteremias.

Conclusions: MRSA bacteremia was associated with poorer outcome than either PRSA or PSSA bacteremia. We corroborated several risk factors found in previous studies.