This study represents the most comprehensive report to date analyzing the prevalence of preoperative MRSA and MSSA colonization in patients undergoing a wide array of surgical neuromodulation procedures. These data support the recommendation that patients receiving neuroimplantable devices, specifically patients undergoing ITB pump procedures, be 1) screened for both MRSA and MSSA, as screening for MRSA alone will not reveal a large fraction of S. aureus colonization; and 2) considered for decolonization protocols prior to surgery. Following these procedures significantly reduced SSIs in patients who underwent ITB pump implantation procedures and might have reduced SSIs for SCS and DBS implantation procedures as well.
Treffy et al. (Fri,) studied this question.