MRSA threat linked to more severe bone infections, health complications in kids

Washington, June 30 : Researchers at the UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that the emergence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as a key pathogen has resulted in more complications and longer hospital stays for children with acute bone infections.

Acute osteomyelitis, a bone infection that mainly occurs in children, is usually caused by the staph bacteria. Treatment has conventionally been straightforward because most S. aureus bacteria can be killed with existing antibiotics.

Recently, however, more children with osteomyelitis have been developing the more severe, antibiotic-resistant, community-associated MRSA, resulting in more complications and prolonged antibiotic therapy and hospital stays.

"This study shows the transition from the normal S. aureus to the methicillin-resistant one that everybody calls the superbug," said Dr. Octavio Ramilo, professor of pediatrics at UT Southwestern and senior author of a study.

"What's important about this is not only that MRSA infections are harder to treat because they are more resistant to the traditional antibiotics, but they are also more aggressive and cause more severe disease manifestations. This is reflected very clearly in this study."

Dr. Asunci³n Mejas, assistant professor of pediatrics and co-lead author, said MRSA isn't a new problem among children.

"But the MRSA that we used to see was acquired in the hospital. This is a different strain that patients acquire in the community. Now, we see kids with osteomyelitis who have bone abscesses in the legs and who get blood clots that lead to pulmonary embolisms," she said.

"We don't want to alarm parents, but kids who limp or have backaches and fever after an otherwise minor trauma need to be evaluated by a physician," she added.

For the study, researchers culled the medical records of 290 children admitted to Children's Medical Center Dallas between January 1999 and December 2003 with acute osteomyelitis. The median age of those surveyed was 6 years and most children were white or Hispanic. Sixty percent were male. Symptoms such as localized pain, fever, tenderness, swelling and limping were observed in more than half the patients.

The researchers divided the patient population into two groups (January 1999 to June 2001 and July 2001 to December 2003) to verify whether MRSA infections were becoming more common and more severe.

They then compared patients with MRSA osteomyelitis to children with non-MRSA osteomyelitis, which included those with methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) infections. They also reviewed outcomes, including duration of fever, the type and length of antibiotic therapy, and the frequency of complications, such as muscle inflammation, bone abscesses, disseminated disease and the need to drain the bone surgically.

Though the clinical characteristics of the participants didn't change significantly between the first and second study periods, children who were treated in the latter period for osteomyelitis fared far worse, possibly because MRSA infections were more common, Dr. Ramilo said.

Dr. Ramilo said the number of children who needed surgery was also striking. Seventy-eight percent of the patients with MRSA required surgery, compared with 49 percent of those with MSSA.

He said the findings highlight the need for multicenter studies to identify the best antibiotic regimens as well as the best surgical approaches for complications.

The study appears in the July/August issue of the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics.

ANI