Abstract:
Introduction Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA) is transmitted through direct contact or fomites.
The most important means of nosocomial spread is by
hospital personnel. However, fomites are being increasingly
recognized as sources of nosocomial infection.
Objectives Our aim was to describe the MRSA
contamination rate of phlebotomy tourniquets and faucets
in a tertiary care hospital and to compare the
contamination of plastic tourniquets with that of fabric
tourniquets.
Method A cross-sectional study was carried out in the
general wards of a tertiary care hospital in the Colombo
District. Two hundred tourniquets were collected and 100
faucets were swabbed and cultured on CHROMagar™
MRSA medium (CHROMagar Microbiology). Contamination
rates of 50 plastic tourniquets and 50 fabric
tourniquets were compared.
Results MRSA grew in 26% of tourniquets. Majority were
plastic tubes. MRSA contamination of tourniquets did not
significantly differ by ward (p>0.4). MRSA was found on
26% of faucets. Contamination rate was highest in the
common wards for dermatology, dental, rheumatology,
and neurology (55.6%), followed by gynaecology (45.2%),
cardiology (33.3%), surgery (18.8%), psychiatry (11.1%),
and medicine (5.6%). There was a significant difference
in rates of contamination of faucets in the different wards
(p<0.01). There was no significant difference in the colony
count per surface area of the two types of tourniquets
after a single use.
Conclusions MRSA contamination rates of tourniquets
and faucets were high. Single-use plastic tourniquets
were much less contaminated with MRSA than reused
tourniquets.
