Aims .– The objectives of this pilot prospective monocenter cohort study were to describe Staphylococcus aureus (SA) colonization in children before cardiac surgery and to compare the incidence of surgical site infection (SSI) and other nosocomial infections between preoperative carriers and non-carriers.

Methods.– During 9 months, all children < 1 year undergoing cardiac surgery had preoperative methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive SA (MSSA) screening by real-time PCR (genXpert System, Cepheid ^® ). The only exclusion criterion was invalid PCR. All patients were followed regarding SSI and other nosocomial infections. The primary outcome was the comparison of incidence of SSI among colonized and non-colonized patients.

Results.– Among the 42 studied patients (mean age 2.7 ± 3 months, mean weight 4.4 ± 1.6 kg, mean CBP time 120 ± 44 min, mean hospital length of stay 19.4 ± 20.9 days, mean intensive care unit length of stay 8.2 ± 4.2 days), overall rates of carriage of SA and of SSI were respectively 24% (21% with MSSA and 2.4% with MRSA) and 34.1%. Microorganisms were identified in 36% of the 11 cases of SSI (9% of MSSA, 9% of MRSA and 18% of coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS)). Incidence of SSI was not different between carriers and non-carriers (30% vs 25% respectively, P = 0.29). Only one CNS bacteriemia and no pneumonia were documented in the cohort.

Conclusions .– This pilot highlights that colonization with SA is frequent in our country whereas MRSA prevalence is low. At this stage, data are insufficient to conclude regarding the relationship between SA carriage and the risk for developing SSI.