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That is the question…

And a group of researchers at the Integrated Soft Tissue Infection Services (ISIS) Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital attempted to answer it with a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (Editor’s note: This Journal Club recap, written by guest-blogger Jennifer, covers a paper by Rajendran et al. in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Nov. 2007; pdf and background articles here). Patients who met rather broad inclusion criteria (including febrile and immune deficient patients) were treated with incision and drainage, and then randomized to receive either cephalexin or placebo.

The results? There was no significant difference between the “treatment” arm of the study and the “placebo” arm of the study.

Although the study design seems reasonable, several holes in the investigators’ plan were brought up at this month’s Journal Club.

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