Assessment of Vancomycin MIC Creep Phenomenon in Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Lahore

OBJECTIVE: To assess vancomycin MIC creep phenomenon in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from clinical specimens. METHODS: This descriptive study was conducted in Microbiology department of University of Health Sciences, Lahore from January 2016- December 2019. In this study, vancomycin MICs were revealed by E test method for clinical MRSA strains. For the final evaluation, a single isolate from each patient was taken. The reported vancomycin MICs results were used and the values were not rounded up to the next upward value. For every study year, MIC50, MIC90, median and geometrical mean MIC, percentages of susceptible and resistant strains were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 352 MRSA strains were isolated out of 2704 staphylococcal isolates. Our study showed elevated vancomycin MIC among MRSA isolates. The majority of isolates showed MIC values ≥1.5µg/ml. MIC50, MIC 90 was constant throughout four years period. However, geometric mean MIC increased gradually during the study period. The MIC greater than base year median was overall 17.3%. A complete shift can be observed between MIC “1.0” and “2.0” the percent of cases with MIC “1.0” decreased and with MIC “2.0” increased over time crossing each other in 2017. CONCLUSION: Vancomycin MIC creep was identified in clinical isolates of MRSA, during four years of study period. Even though there is an absence of VISA and VRSA strains; this significant increase in vancomycin MIC trend is indeed worrying for the clinicians about the threat of potential failure of treatment in MRSA infections.