Staphylococcus aureus

Bronchoscopy lab result. Autocorrect got me.

Finding of "heavy growth of staphylococcus aureus" in lung tissue culture from bronchoscopy. Significance?

Staph aureus colonization is very common in bronchiectasis and my doctors were very reluctant to treat it if I was not “sick”. They implied that the nasty sputum was mostly inflammatory progression of bronchitis
True, I wasn’t acutely ill but I was producing progressively larger amounts of sputum and airway clearance was severely affecting my quality of life over the course of more than a year.
I eventually was treated with Bactrim with no effect but then got bronchitis and grew Moraxella in addition to staph
Treated with Augmentin with a dramatic decrease in sputum production to the point where I don’t know how I will provide another sputum sample to monitor for recurrence of NTM! A good problem to have!
So, if you are feeling unwell or producing much sputum please insist on treatment!

Sorry autocorrected- should have been inflammatory progression of bronchiectasis

Thanks so much. This is very helpful. I am feeling OK except for the cough and some fatigue. Waiting for the results of the NTM/MAC culture so I guess I will just tough it out till then.

If you know the sensitivities of the Staph aureus, you could try an anti biotic in the meantime
Even if you have NTM, some part of your symptoms could be from the Staph and might improve quickly and easily with a standard antibiotic