Prevalence of MRSA Bacteremia in Liver Transplant Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Infection is one of the major threats to liver transplant patients and significantly affects associated mortality and morbidity. Serious infections are likely to occur a few months after transplantation, and most of them are bacterial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia in liver transplant patients.

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, Preferred Reporting Items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis guidelines were used. International databases including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Sciences, Embase, and Cochrane were searched by related MeSH terms and keywords for studies published until July 26, 2020. The current study was registered by a pre-defined protocol in PROSPRO.

After a comprehensive literature search, 11 articles were selected for inclusion in the analysis. The prevalence of MRSA in liver transplant patients was 75% (95% CI: 58% - 89%); however, an evident heterogeneity was observed between the studies (I2= 87.84%, p< .001).

In conclusion, this study results demonstrate that the prevalence of post-transplant MRSA colonization bacteremia is high among liver transplant patients. This should be considered seriously, and efforts should be made to prevent mortality in this group of patients.