Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open, 2016 · DOI: 10.1097/GOX.0000000000000640 · Published: March 18, 2016
In patients with spinal cord injuries, pressure ulcers are often complicated by infection. Treating these infections surgically requires the right antibiotics, but choosing those antibiotics is difficult because many types of bacteria can be involved. This study compares the results of wound swab cultures with cultures taken directly from tissue during surgery to see how well the swabs predict the actual infection-causing bacteria. The goal is to determine if swab cultures are a reliable way to choose the correct antibiotics for treating infected pressure ulcers in spinal cord injury patients.
Relying solely on swab cultures to select antibiotics for pressure ulcer infections in SCI patients may lead to inappropriate treatment.
More invasive diagnostic methods, such as tissue biopsies, may be necessary for accurate identification of infecting organisms, particularly when osteomyelitis is suspected.
Clinicians should interpret swab culture results with caution and consider other factors, such as clinical presentation and the possibility of osteomyelitis, when choosing antibiotics.