investigation of biofilm formation among methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus isolated from children

Background: the aim of the present study was to investigate biofilm formation among methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (mrsa) isolated from children referring to a pediatric hospital in tehran. methods: in total, 98 mrsa isolates were collected from children referring to a pediatric hospital during 2014 - 2015. all the isolates were confirmed to be mrsa using pcr amplification of the meca gene. the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of the isolates were determined using the kirby-bauer disk-diffusion and e-test methods. in order to assess the ability of biofilm formation among the isolates, congo red agar (cra) and microtiter plate (mtp) methods were used. results: all the isolates were found to be susceptible to linezolid and vancomycin and, likewise, the majority was susceptible to minocycline and rifampicin. cra and mtp methods showed that 81.6% and 63.3% of the mrsa isolates, respectively, were biofilm producers. conclusions: the early identification of s. aureus and detection of biofilm formation by the mtp method are essential steps towards the prevention of the most serious nosocomial infections.