Evidence map›Paper›PMID 17846141›Full record

Trial reportAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy2007

Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of cephalexin for treatment of uncomplicated skin abscesses in a population at risk for community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection.

Priya M Rajendran, David Young, Toby Maurer, Henry Chambers, Francoise Perdreau-Remington, Peter Ro, Hobart Harris

Open access · greenAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
50citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
12.4field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

50 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 213 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  4. Antimicrobial agents for complicated skin and skin-structure infections: justification of noninferiority margins in the absence of placebo-controlled trials.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2009
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  14. Use of Dalbavancin in Treatment of Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections: Case Series from a Canadian Perspective.Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada = Journal officiel de l'Association pour la microbiologie medicale et l'infectiologie Canada · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Priya M RajendranDepartment of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143-0807, USA.
David Young
Toby Maurer
Henry Chambers
Francoise Perdreau-Remington
Peter Ro
Hobart Harris
University of California, San Francisco · US

Funding

WELFARE REFORM AND THE PERINATAL HEALTH OF IMMIGRANTSM01RR000083 · NCRR · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI KESSLER, DAVID A · 1985 to 2006
$21.1M
NCRR NIH HHS 5-M01-RR00083NCRR NIH HHS M01 RR000083PHS HHS R01/CCR923381
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Empirical use of beta-lactam antibiotics, the preferred agents for treating uncomplicated skin and soft tissue infections, may no longer be appropriate for these infections because of the increasing prevalence of community strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Retrospective studies, however, suggest that outcomes are good even when beta-lactams are used. We conducted a randomized, double-blind trial of 166 outpatient subjects comparing placebo to cephalexin at 500 mg orally four times for 7 days after incision and drainage of skin and soft tissue abscesses. The primary outcome was clinical cure or failure 7 days after incision and drainage. S. aureus was isolated from 70.4% of abscess cultures. Of the isolates tested 87.8% were MRSA, 93% of which were positive for Panton-Valentine leucocidin genes. Clinical cure rates were 90.5% (95% confidence interval, 0.82 to 0.96) in the 84 placebo recipients and 84.1% (95% confidence interval, 0.74 to 0.91) in the 82 cephalexin recipients (difference in the two proportions, 0.0006; 95% confidence interval, -0.0461 to 0.0472; P = 0.25). The 90.5% cure rate observed in the placebo arm and 84.1% cure rate observed in the cephalexin arm provide strong evidence that antibiotics may be unnecessary after surgical drainage of uncomplicated skin and soft tissue abscesses caused by community strains of MRSA.

Indexed as

Methicillin ResistanceAbscessAdultAgedAnti-Bacterial AgentsCephalexinCommunity-Acquired InfectionsDouble-Blind MethodFemaleHumansMaleMicrobial Sensitivity TestsMiddle AgedStaphylococcal InfectionsStaphylococcal Skin InfectionsStaphylococcus aureusAnti-Bacterial AgentsCephalexin

Identifiers

PMID17846141
PMCPMC2151464
OpenAlexW2143134882

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.