Incidence of constitutive and inducible clindamycin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci in a community and a tertiary care hospital

The incidences of inducible clindamycin resistance at two hospitals (an inner-city hospital and a suburban community hospital) were 7 and 12% for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, 20 and 19% for methicillin-susceptible S. aureus, and 14 and 35% for coagulase-negative staphylococci, respectively. Given the variability of inducible resistance to clindamycin found in our two hospitals, we conclude that susceptibility testing of staphylococci should include the disk diffusion induction test (D-test).