A COMPARISON OF PHENOTYPIC PROPERTIES OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS ISOLATED FROM BURNED CHILDREN AND OTHER PATIENT GROUPS

This study aimed to determine whether strains of Staph. aureus isolate d from children an our paediatric burns unit were different from strai ns isolated from other patient groups. Of particular interest was the incidence of toxin production amongst the different patient groups and the potential association with toxic shock syndrome (TSS). Wound isol ates of Staph. aureus were collected from three patient groups: (1) ho spital inpatients, (2) community patients and (3) patients from a regi onal burns unit. One hundred isolates were collected from each group ( n = 300). Each isolate was tested for enterotoxin and TSST-1 productio n, phage type, antibiogram and tryptophan dependence. The results were compared, to determine whether there were any differences between the isolates from each of these patient groups. There were same variation s in antibiotic sensitivity patterns and phage type of the isolates be tween the different patient groups but there was no significant differ ence in the incidence of toxin production, which was an important obse rvation. The 100 isolates collected from this burns unit were derived from 58 patients. The colonization patterns of the Staph. aureus showe d that 12 patients were colonized by move than one isolate and that th ese were a mixture of toxin-positive and toxin-negative strains. The m edical records weve examined for evidence of TSS; there was a higher i ncidence of toxic episodes in the patients colonized with strains whic h produced TSST-1 toxin. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd for I SBI.