Characteristics of bacterial skin infections in children compared to adults at a tertiary dermatologic center

Background Bacterial skin infections in children and adults are caused by d ifferent organisms with different antimicrobial susceptibility. Methods A comparative retrospective study was carried out on 233 adults and 53 children with bacterial skin infections. Skin swab cultures and sensiti vity tests were performed using standard methods. Statistical analysis was performed using the Pearson chi-squared and Fisher tests. A P value of <0.0 5 was considered to be significant. Results Primary and secondary skin infections occurred in equal proportions in children, whereas secondary skin infections were more common in adults (70.8%). Staphylococcus aureus was the main cause of skin infections, parti cularly in children (72.6%). S. aureus in children and adults was highly su sceptible to cloxacillin, cephalexin, chloramphenicol, neomycin, cotrimoxaz ole, and clindamycin, moderately susceptible to erythromycin, and insensiti ve to tetracycline, ampicillin, and penicillin. Conclusions It is important to monitor the trends of bacterial infections a nd their antibiotic susceptibility as this can assist medical practitioners in their choice of antimicrobial therapy. Such monitoring will also help t o detect the emergence of resistant bacterial strains and caution us to tak e care in the use of certain drugs.