Antibiotic Susceptibility of Staphylococcus Aureus Isolated from Skin Lesions in Children. A Retrospective Analysis from a Tertiary Care Italian Pediatric Hospital

Abstract Background: knowledge on antibiotic susceptibility of S.aureus strains isolated from skin lesions in pediatric Italian patients is limited.Methods: retrospective analysis of antibiotic susceptibility of S.aureus strains isolated from skin infections observed from January 2013 to June 2019 at the IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa – ItalyResults: a total of 1833 strains were analyzed. Methicillin resistance was more frequent in cultures from outpatients than from inpatients (18% vs. 14%, p=0.04) as well as resistance to cotrimoxazole (8% vs. 4.1%, p<0.001) Resistance to ampicillin was 99% in both groups, while to clindamycin it was 11% and 14%, respectively. Among topical antibiotics fusidic acid showed the better resistance profile (3%).Conclusions: the proportion of antibiotic resistance in S.aureus skin infections in Italian children is not negligible. This could represent a problem, especially for orally administered drugs.