I have written in the past about my excitement over new molecular techniques to diagnose lower extremity infections. I really believe that this is the future for both bacterial and fungal disease. These tests are incredibly sensitive, specific and rapid with results possible in hours rather than days. My greatest concern has been that, to … Read more
As I mentioned in my previous post, this has been a pretty exciting time in the area of lower extremity infectious diseases. Not only do we have 2 new drugs for onychomycosis (to be covered in future posts) but we also have 3 new FDA approved antibiotics for the treatment of, in FDA Speak; “acute … 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 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
The more I read the infectious disease literature the more my diet becomes limited. It seems that new reports of contaminated food are published regularly. It gets to a point where you don’t know what you should and should not eat! I have always been wary of raw foods and rarely eat sushi especially after … 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
I received this question from a reader: In suspected osteomyelitis do you stop antibiotics prior to obtaining a bone culture? For how long? This comment came in under my entry on the VULCAN trial but I actually covered the question in a post almost exactly a year ago. I am reprinting my response here for … Read more
Right off the top, I apologize for the obviousness of the Mr. Spock reference. I couldn’t resist! A few months ago I was invited by Robert Kirsner, MD, PhD and Stephanie Wu, DPM to write a chapter on “Antimicrobial Therapy” in their upcoming Wound Healing Society Yearbook. The design of the chapter is a review … Read more