MRSA Notes

Interestingly enough, I recently had a great conversation with another blogger (during a blogger meetup while I was in Toronto last week) about LASIK (Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis) surgery - this is the laser surgery that is so popular now for vision correction. This is something that I have been hesitant about getting, mostly because I am just plain old scared to have someone mess around with my precious eyes and take the risk of making them into a worse mess than they already are. He had almost made me feel comfortable about getting the surgery.

But, last week, in the American Journal of Opthamology, researchers are warning patients and doctors of the very real risk of MRSA keratitis, an MRSA infection in your eye as a result of LASIK surgery. I think I will go back to my “thanks, but no thanks” stand on LASIK. Here are some of the details of the study, you can read more about it here:

Infectious keratitis developed in 13 eyes of 12 patients after PRK. Organisms cultured were Staphylococcus aureus (n = 5), including a bilateral case of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; Staphylococcus epidermidis (n = 4); Streptococcus pneumoniae (n = 3); and Streptococcus viridans (n = 1). Four patients manipulated their contact lenses, and 2 patients were exposed to nosocomial organisms while working in a hospital environment. Prophylactic antibiotics used were tobramycin (nine cases), polymyxin B-trimethoprim (three cases), and ciprofloxacin (one case). Final best spectacle-corrected visual acuity ranged from 20/20 to 20/100.

Thirteen eyes in 12 patients. That is not a good statistic. The sample size is quite small though, so there could be other underlying factors, but with as rampant as MRSA is these days, it is just a risk I am not willing to take. How about you?

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