I recently came across some fascinating data which breaks down the number of outpatient prescriptions written by podiatrists for all different classes of drug in 2010. Unlike various surveys that have been done over the years by different magazines, this is hard data based on the actual number of scripts. I would like to comment … Read more
I wish all of my readers a healthy, happy and prosperous 2012. With this post I am trying something a bit different. In the past I usually waited to put up a post until I come up with an “ah ha” moment on something I have seen, heard or read about which I then pontificate … Read more
One of the most frequent questions I am used to be asked is about when antibiotic prophylaxis should be used in performing foot and ankle surgery. I have an entire lecture on this topic where I go through the data, or lack thereof, on the subject and suggest the clinical situations where prophy has traditionally … Read more
One of the trickiest issues in prescribing linezolid for patients with MRSA or VRE infections is the potential for a drug-drug interaction, leading to serotonin syndrome (SS), with various serotonergic psychiatric medications. It seems that every pharmacy computer system in the world goes crazy with warnings when you attempt to write for this antibiotic while … Read more
As I have mentioned in a previous post there are a number of journals I follow to stay abreast of developments in the ID, microbiology and antibiotic world. For updates on the latest in antibiotic development from pre-clinical through clinical testing no journal beats the American Society of Microbiology’s Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (http://asm.org/). Just … Read more
For a number of years I have referred in my lectures to the word I have termed “Pseudomonaphobia”. Basically, this is an irrational fear of the organism Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) when isolated from a culture of a wound in the foot. I really believe that this arises in most Podiatrists during the residency interview process … Read more
With this entry onto the blog I am trying something new. The IT team at Data Trace has been working on a way to post a PowerPoint slide show to the blog. We believe it is now ready to go. For this first PowerPoint, I am posting the lecture I gave at DFCON 2011 in … Read more
I have blogged a number of times about the questions surrounding some of the unknown, unproven issues surrounding the treatment of osteomyelitis including duration of antibiotic therapy and the “need” for surgical debridement. It continues to amaze me how it does not matter where, or to whom I lecture, if I ask the question “How … Read more
I just returned from the DFCON meeting in Los Angeles, always my favorite scientific conferences of the year (I have blogged about it previously https://www.leinfections.com/diabetic-foot/the-olmos-award-and-dfcon-2010/). My topic this year was “Drugs and Bugs 2011”. Since I gave a similar talk last year I had to try to find a few “hot” topics to update the … Read more
I know that sometimes my posts can be a bit esoteric discussing the minutia of antibiotic dosing, findings in the literature, etc. So, to change gears a bit, I would like to make this a rather basic clinical discussion. I know that some of you may find this too simplistic but given the number of … Read more