When most of us think about minocycline it is for the oral treatment of gram positive infection, in particular MRSA. In fact, the drug is effective against multidrug resistant gram negative organisms, including Acinetobacter baumannii (AB). This point was driven home to me recently when I saw that my favorite ID journal Clinical Infectious Diseases … Read more
USA Today ran an interesting story yesterday about a 19 year old woman given an antibiotic by a friend for a “sore throat” who developed Stevens Johnson Syndrome. This is a terrible incident and my thoughts and prayers go out to the young woman and her family. What bothered me however was the way in … Read more
I confess…I have been a bit lackadaisical in my scanning through the journals I receive each month. This point was driven home to me yesterday when I went to find room on my desk to put some work and realized it was totally covered with stacks of journal back issues I had put aside with … Read more
A few weeks ago my old Podiatric College roommate sent me a link to a fascinating YouTube video. I then sent it to a few friends who, in turn, posted it on a few other blogs so it has become a minor viral (or should I say “bacterial”) success. This lecture, by Professor Eshal Ben-Jacob … 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
This week I will be giving a talk to the Podiatric Assistants at the APMA National Meeting in Boston on the topic of office infection control. I believe that this is an area which does not receive enough attention since it is far from “sexy” or cutting edge but is still important. Last year I … Read more