Increase in the frequency of recovery of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in acute and chronic maxillary sinusitis

1 Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA 2 Departments of Otolaryngology, Alachua General and North Florida Regional Hospitals, Gainesville, FL, USA Correspondence Itzhak Brook ib6{at}georgetown.edu Received 20 January 2008 Accepted 9 April 2008 This study compared the rate of recovery of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) between the periods 2001–2003 and 2004–2006 in acute and chronic maxillary sinusitis. Cultures were obtained from 458 patients, 244 with acute and 214 with chronic maxillary sinusitis; 215 isolates were recovered in the 2 years between 2001 and 2003 (118 from acute and 97 from chronic sinusitis), and 243 in the 2 years between 2004 and 2006 (126 from acute and 117 from chronic sinusitis). S. aureus was isolated from ten (8 %) of the patients with acute sinusitis between 2001 and 2003, three (30 %) of which were MRSA, and from 13 (10 %) of the patients with acute sinusitis between 2004 and 2006, nine (69 %) of which were MRSA ( P