Efficacy of immediate postirrigation culture in the treatment of upper-extremity abscesses.

Abstract

A retrospective chart review of 192 patients of the musculoskeletal infection ward at the authors' facility was performed to assess the value of immediate postirrigation cultures in the treatment of acute soft tissue infections of the upper extremity. Twenty-two patients (11.5%) had postirrigation cultures with an organism that was not present in the preirrigation cultures. All of those organisms not previously found were gram-positive organisms, and no changes were necessary in the initial antibiotic regimes. Immediate postirrigation cultures did not prove to be effective in the information they provided related to treatment of acute soft tissue infections of the upper extremity.