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
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 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
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
For part 2 of this posting on the new Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) MRSA Guidelines I would like to comment on some of the Executive Summary points made about MRSA bone and joint infections and also vancomycin dosing recommendations. I will use a similar format as before with posting the actual text and … Read more
After an extended, deliberative writing and review process the brand new Infectious Diseases Society of America clinical practice guidelines on the treatment of MRSA have finally been published (full text at http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/01/04/cid.ciq146.full.pdf+html). I really feel that this document is a MUST READ for anyone interested in treating infections of the lower extremity. For right or … Read more
One of this blog’s readers, Dr. McLeod, asked the following: My question is: Does one need to prescribe antibiotics after I+Ding an abscess? I use to work at a county hospital in Oakland, California where there was a high MRSA rate. At that time (2005), we were being taught not it is unneccessary to prescribe … Read more
With this blog entry I am going to try something a bit different. I know that there is a good readership of my posts but, to date, I have been somewhat disappointed in the number of comments and interactions I have received from you, the readers. I stated in my very first post: The whole … Read more