Skin and Soft Tissue Abscesses: The Case for Culturing Abscess Fluid

 Funding and support: The author reports this study did not receive any outside funding or support and there were no other conflicts of interest to declare. See the Manuscript Submission agreement form, published each month, for details of covered relationships.Editor’s note: The treatment of superficial skin abscesses has recently been complicated by the emergence of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (community-associated MRSA), a pathogen that is frequently resistant to the antibiotics that are usually used to treat skin infections. Although routine wound cultures can help identify the presence of this pathogen and reveal any unique or unusual antimicrobial susceptibilities, the clinical utility of information obtained from routine wound cultures is unclear: the majority of these lesions can be adequately treated using simple incision and drainage, and identification of the organism and its susceptibility patterns is irrelevant.In this installment of Clinical Controversies, “pro” and “con” advocates discuss opposing perspectives and present the available evidence and arguments that must be considered in deciding to embrace or abandon the use of routine wound cultures in treating patients who present with superficial skin abscesses.

PII: S0196-0644(07)00385-X

doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2007.03.024

© 2007 American College of Emergency Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.