Management of Skin and Soft-Tissue Infections in Urgent Care (Infectious Disease CME and Pharmacology CME)

Points & Pearls Excerpt

• With some 14 million cases of SSTIs presenting to ambulatory settings annually, their misdiagnosis and mismanagement leads to hundreds of millions of dollars of avoidable healthcare spending and increased risk for morbidity and mortality.
• SSTIs can be distinguished by their location in the soft tissue: erysipelas is superficial; cellulitis is in the dermal layers; and necrotizing infection is in the deeper dermal and fascial layers. (See Figure 1.)
• Purulent SSTIs are typically caused by Staphylococcus species; the IDSA recommends empiric coverage for MRSA for these patients.
• Nonsuppurative SSTIs tend to be caused by infection with Streptococcus species.