A new study just proved that antibiotics are actually effective in treating simple cases of skin infections most especially the ones caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. This research was later published in the New England Journal of Medicine which has the ability to change the treatment approaches o simple skin abscesses.
The study was a multicentre research which also involved the Vanderbilt Medical Center investigators. In the said study, it was found out that children or adults who have simple cases of abscesses measuring five centimeters in diameter or even smaller have higher cure rates.
According to Eureka Alert, the researchers drained the abscesses and combined these with antibiotic treatment, either clindamycin or trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole or the TMP/SMX or Bactrim. The researchers found out that this way is more effective than draining the abscesses alone.
What they did was they first drained the abscesses and measured them carefully in order to guarantee that it was less than five centimeters. After that, they randomized participants to obtain placebo or any of the antibiotics that were mentioned above.
Their discovery led to the conclusion that antibiotics are in fact very helpful and that people are likely to get better if they have antibiotics with them compared to those who don't have. They were able to uncover too that cases, where clindamycin was applied, was in fact linked with fewer occurrences in its first month.
In the previous reports, it was found out that TMP/SMX and Clindamycin are often suggested or outpatient treatment o abscesses due to their reasonable cost and their capability to eliminate MRSA strains. This was the reason why the researchers conducted the study since results on efficacy were not even enough.
The said study had 786 participants which included 505 adults and 281 children. The researchers got 527 staph samples of abscesses and 388 methicillin-resistant S. aureus samples. Then the respondents were randomized to have clindamycin, placebo, or TMP/SMX for 10 days following the drainage of the abscesses.
In its conclusion, the researchers found out that clindamycin was effective in children while it was also effective in adults together with TMP/SMX. Moreover, it was then revealed that these antibiotics are effective in treating simple cases of skin infections as the cure rate was also high.
