Staphylococcal bacteremia: current patterns in nonuniversity hospitals.

We studied 390 consecutive episodes of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia in the four nonuniversity hospitals of one metropolitan area between 1977 and 1981. Overall mortality was 31%, with 52% of deaths being attributed to the infection. The 4.9% incidence of recognized endocarditis was lower than that previously reported. Although 41% of deaths occurred by the end of the third day after positive blood cultures had been obtained, choice of antimicrobial therapy bore no apparent relationship to eventual clinical outcome.