Staphylococcus aureus carriage of the operating room staff?s hand and nasal flora at dokuz Eylül Üniversity school of medicine hospital

The aim of this study was to determine the hand and nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus in the staff working at our hospital?s centeral operating roooms. Between August 23, 2012 - August 29, 2012; at weekdays, during working hours without prior notice a total of 110 working staff including 29 (26.4%) surgeons, 15 (13.6%) anesthesia doctors, 16 (14.5%), surgical nurses, 9 (8.2%) recovery nurses, 13 (11.8%) anesthesia technicians, 18 (16.4%) surgical staff and 10 (9.1%)cleaning staff were included in the study. At first samples there was no bacterial growth in hand cultures, but 28(25.5%) nasal cultures were found positive for S. aureus; including 22 (20%) methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and 6 (5.5%) methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Due to the study protocol, after five weekdays the second hand and nasal samples were taken from the staff from whom nasal bacterial growth was identified at the first samples. Similar to the initial samples there was no bacterial growth in the second hand cultures, but 16 (14.5%) nasal cultures were found positive for S. aureus; including 13 (11.8%) MSSA and three (2.7%) MRSA. As a result of our study nasal S. aureus carriage rate was 14.5% and nasal MRSA carriage rate was 2.7%.In our study there was no significant relationship between gender, age, educational level, occupational group, smoking, presence of MRSA in the last six months, chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension, history of hospitalization or surgery with MRSA carriage. 4Operating rooms are risk factors for the development of nosocomial infections.For this reason, hygiene rules should be considered in operating rooms, the hospital infection control committee's recommendations must be followed, in terms of nasal carriage operating room staff should be evaluated at regular intervals, in case of detection of methicillin resistance and the required treatment should be applied to the carriers.Key words: Hospital infection, Staphylococcus aureus carriage, MRSA, Operating room staff