My wife has MRSA and I have been doing a great deal of research about it, however I am unable to find any information about people who have MRSA and are facing surgery. Can anyone tell me if they would have knee replacement surgery if they have open sores. My gut tells me that she should not, but I would like to hear the truth from someone.
thanks,
yoda
I am a physician who sees a LOT of MRSA and the best advice I can give is to talk to her surgeon.
Generally we clear folks for surgery if the lesion has closed, or if still open, if the culture is MRSA negative 7 days after they’re off antibiotics. But your surgeon, or his hospital OR may have different protocols. They may want nasal swabs, and if she’s MRSA colonized elsewhere on her body, put her on nasal antibiotics along with different oral ones to try to eradicate it.
MRSA is damn common these days. It’s not the superbug everyone was fearing, and the community-acquired variety still responds to sulfa, tetracycline, and clindamycin as a rule. But attention must be paid to it.
Our great fear is that the community-acquired strain will cross-breed with the hospital acquired strain (which is less hardy than the CA MRSA, but more resistant to bacteria) and create a more hardy, more virulent, more resistant strain. Not happening so far to any significant extent though. Yet.
Good luck to you and your wife.
We prefer that real-life medical/legal questions go in IMHO rather than General Questions. Moved.
samclem, moderator
A recent houseguest just told us he is being treated for a MRSA infection that he had while visiting. My borderline germophobic wife is now worried. The guy slept on our fold-out couch (using sheets and a blanket) and showered and toweled off in the bathroom. He’s a bachelor of unusual size with iffy hygiene.
Does this represent any danger? How much sanitizing must we do?