Some patients with a surgical infection may develop recurrent infection once antibiotic therapy is stopped. Stone et al identified patients at very low risk for recurrent infection. The authors are from the University of Maryland.
Patient selection: surgical infection
A patient with all of the following was at very low risk for recurrent infection once antibiotics stopped if all of the following are present:
(1) afebrile (normal temperature)
(2) white blood cell count normal
(3) percent neutrophils in differential count < 73%
(4) percent immature granulocytes in the differential count < 3%
This study antedated the ready availability of C-reactive protein. It might be interesting to see if a declining trend in CRP levels is informative.
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