Inappropriate antibiotic use in soft tissue infections in injection drug users

Abstract

I read with great interest the article by Paydar et al1 showing that treatment of soft tissue infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus after surgical drainage, even with inappropriate antibiotics, has a high cure rate. In their study, an important finding is that in a subgroup from the cohort of 272 patients with available demographic data, 58% were injection drug users. This can influence the results of the study. Cutaneous infections are the most common infections in injection drug users.2-9 A wide range of pathogens, including almost all bacteria and fungi, have been isolated in these infections, but the most common are S aureus, group A beta hemolytic Streptococcus, other Streptococci, and anaerobes.2-9 Recurrent skin infections in this population are frequent and could result in the chronic stimulation of the immune system, which can help cure the skin infection. Furthermore, when street-sold illicit narcotics . .