ABSCESSES SECONDARY TO PARENTERAL ABUSE OF DRUGS - A STUDY OF DEMOGRAPHIC AND BACTERIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Seventy-seven patients (eighty-six lesions) who had been seen over a f ifteen-month period because of an abscess at the site of injection due to parenteral abuse of drugs were identified in a retrospective revie w. Forty-one patients (forty-five abscesses) had had cultures before a ntibiotic therapy. Thirty (73 per cent) of the forty-one patients had isolation of a streptococcal species on culture, with microaerophilic streptococci identified in sixteen. Twenty (49 per cent) of the forty- one patients had isolation of a staphylococcal species. Four of the st aphylococcal organisms were identified as oxacillin-resistant Staphylo coccus aureus. Two patients who had three abscesses each had different organisms in each abscess. Gramnegative bacilli were identified in th e cultures of ten (24 per cent) of the forty-one patients; patients wh o were forty years old or more had a sixfold greater risk of having gr am-negative bacilli. Specimens of the abscess had been obtained from t hirty-six patients for culture from twelve to seventy-two hours after the first dose of antibiotics had been given. The microbiological find ings in these cultures were similar to those in the cultures of specim ens obtained from patients before antibiotics had been given. Five (14 per cent) of thirty five patients who had been tested for the human i mmunodeficiency virus had a positive result. This finding emphasizes t he importance of surveillance for and precautions against the human im munodeficiency virus in people who abuse drugs parenterally.