Minocycline, often forgotten but preferred to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole or doxycycline for the treatment of community-acquired meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus skin and soft-tissue infections

Treatment of uncomplicated skin and soft-tissue abscesses caused by meticillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus or meticillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is problematic. Incision and drainage aside, oral antibiotic therapy for uncomplicated community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) is limited and frequent choices include clindamycin, doxycycline or trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX). The most common oral antibiotics used for CA-MRSA are doxycycline or TMP-SMX, which often fail to eradicate the infection. With MRSA, in vitro susceptibilities do not always predict in vivo effectiveness. In situations where doxycycline or TMP-SMX fails in the treatment of uncomplicated cutaneous abscesses due to CA-MRSA, minocycline is reliably effective. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. and the International Society of Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.