Trends of the Bacterial Skin Infections of Dermatology Outpatients in 1996, 2001 and 2006

Park, Ji Hye; Byun, Ji Yeon; Lee, Dong Youn; Lee, Joo Heung; Yang, Jun Mo; Lee, Eil Soo

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Bacterial infections of the skin are treatable and reversible, so clinicians should be alert for the cutaneous signs of the skin infection. However, there have been only a few reports about the epidemiology of skin infections.
OBJECTIVE
This study was done to evaluate the trend of the clinical features, the results of cultures and the prevalence of MRSA in the dermatology outpatients who had suspected bacterial skin infection in 1996, 2001 and 2006 and we wanted to compare the trends of bacterial skin infection over the last eleven years.
METHODS
The survey was conducted via the medical records of 24 patients in 1996, 77 patients in 2001 and 88 patients in 2006 who visited the our dermatology department and who underwent Gram-stain and bacterial culture.
RESULTS
Of the 347 samples, bacteria were cultured in 197 samples. Among them, 77 samples had coagulase negative Staphylococci, which were excluded as normal skin flora. Among 120 samples, the number of cases of secondary pyoderma, folliculitis, furuncle or carbuncle and cellulitis were 63, 17, 17 and 15, respectively. There was no change in the type of diagnosis during eleven years. The most common pathogen of skin infection was S. aureus (42.7%) and there was no trend to increase for ten years. However, the prevalence of methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) increased for eleven years.
CONCLUSION
The most common pathogen in pyogenic skin infections of the dermatology outpatients was S. aureus, which was sensitive to beta-lactamase resistant beta-lactam antibiotics, but there was an increase of the prevalence of MRSA for eleven years, and the first therapeutic choice for MRSA is vancomycin or teicoplanin.