[Postoperative enterocolitis and current status of MRSA enterocolitis--the result of a questionnaire survey in Japan].

There is a trend of increase in the number of Staphylococcus aureus infection recently, and postoperative enterocolitis due to methicillin resistant strains is appearing. Because of this, a nation wide questionnaire survey on postoperative enterocolitis was conducted to clarify the status since 1980. Of the 875 major surgical institutes to which we sent the questionnaire, 370 (42.3%) replied and 67 case reports were obtained from 25 institutes. Twenty published reports were added to this and a total of 87 cases were evaluable. The number of postoperative enterocolitis increased after the year 1985, and those resulting from MRSA infection were more frequent in the northern half of Japan including the Kanto area. It was more frequent in males and the mean age was 57.9. Their onset was sudden, beginning with diarrhea and/or fever between the second and fifth postoperative days. In most of the cases, the cephalosporin group of antibiotics, especially of the third generation, were administered preceding the enterocolitis. Six of cases (24%) did not survive, and in some of the institutes they were considered to be hospital infections, as they appeared consecutively between a short period of time.