Introduction. Dalbavancin was approved in Europe in 2015 for skin and soft tissue infections.Hypothesis/Gap Statement. Data on methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (MR-CNS) dalbavancin susceptibility are scarce.Aim. To assess the susceptibility of MR-CNS to dalbavancin and other anti-staphylococcal agents.Methodology. A total of 443 MR-CNS clinical isolates from patients hospitalized in a Greek university hospital during a 2.5-year period (January 2018 to June 2020) were included. The MICs for vancomycin, teicoplanin, linezolid and daptomycin were investigated by Etest and the MIC for dalbavancin was determined according to European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) guidelines in 196 isolates. The consumption of the aforementioned antimicrobials was calculated.Results. In total, 51 isolates were resistant to teicoplanin (11.5 %) and 211 (47.6 %) to linezolid; all were susceptible to vancomycin and daptomycin. Among 196 isolates tested, 32 (16.3 %) were resistant to dalbavancin. A significant increase of MIC during the study period was found for vancomycin, teicoplanin and daptomycin, while a decrease in linezolid's MIC was observed. Dalbavancin's MIC remained stable. No difference in consumption was observed among the studied anti-staphylococcal agents.Conclusion. An increase of vancomycin, teicoplanin and daptomycin MICs among MR-CNS was observed, whereas 47.6 % of isolates were non-susceptible to linezolid. Dalbavancin retains excellent potency against MR-CNS, even in the presence of non-susceptibility to other anti-staphylococcal antibiotics.
Keywords: dalbavancin; daptomycin; linezolid; methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci; teicoplanin; vancomycin.