�Many nursing mothers wHO have been hospitalized for breast abscesses are stricken with the "superbug" methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, but according to new research by UT Southwestern Medical Center physicians, conservative treatment commode deal with the problem.
The study focused on hospitalized women with mastitis, and showed that MRSA was much more likely to be found in those who had both mastitis (an rubor of the milk glands) and abscesses (pockets of infection).
"The take home message is that a patient with mastitis does not necessarily need an antibiotic against MRSA," aforesaid Dr. George Wendel, prof of obstetrics and gynecology and senior author of the study, which appears in the September issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. "She will improve with a less specific antibiotic drug as long as she also empties her breasts, either through feeding or pumping, and if there's an abscess, gets it treated."
The field of study also showed that if a nursing mother has an abscess, she does not immediately need antibiotics against MRSA, but tin can be switched to them if tests reveal she has MRSA.
The study was designed to determine which antibiotic handling is best for spartan cases of mastitis, which can be caused by clogged milk ducts with or without infection, and breast abscesses, which ar caused by bacterial infections, generally by aureus. There are many strains of staph, one of which is MRSA.
Treating mastitis or breast abscesses immediately with powerful drugs that fight MRSA carries a risk of creating even more than antibiotic-resistant strains of staph, Dr. Wendel said.
"The physician can take the time to quiz the patient to determine what kind of bacteria she has," Dr. Wendel said. "We found that you're non going to put the patient at a disadvantage if you start her on antibiotics while you wait for culture results, then shift her to more sinewy medication if she has MRSA."
The study involved 136,459 women who delivered at Parkland Memorial Hospital between 1997 and 2005. Of those, 127 were hospitalized with mastitis, which tends to strike jr. women having their number one child.
The researchers found that about 59 percent of the women with both mastitis and abscesses had MRSA, piece only 2 percent of women with mastitis unequalled had MRSA. Because the study tracked women wHO had been hospitalized, in that respect is no way to know whether this dimension is the same in women treated for mastitis on an outpatient base, Dr. Wendel said.
MRSA is resistant to many antibiotics, but the researchers launch that regular in cases when the exact crusade of the mastitis or abscess had not til now been determined, and the women ab initio received antibiotics that don't affect MRSA, all eventually recovered completely.
During the study, when tests showed that a womanhood had MRSA, she was switched to vancomycin, an antibiotic effective against it.
About 2 percentage to 10 percent of all nursing mothers germinate some sort of white meat inflammation such as mastitis, the researchers said. Symptoms of mastitis include unexplained fever and deep irritation or protuberance in one and only breast merely not the other.
In direct contrast to mastitis, an abscess is caused by a localized infection, which causes pain in a specific area that can feel hot to the touch and come out red on the skin.
"Women should seek medical charge if they have any symptoms or concerns for breast infections," said Dr. Irene Stafford, resident in obstetrics and gynecology and lead generator of the study.
Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the study were Drs. Jennifer Hernandez and Vanessa Laibl Rogers, both helper professors of obstetrics and gynecology; and Drs. Jeanne Sheffield and Scott Roberts, both associate professors of obstetrics and gynecology.
Visit hypertext transfer protocol://www.utsouthwestern.org/obgyn to learn more about clinical services in obstetrics and gynecology at UT Southwestern.
Dr. George Wendel
Source: Aline McKenzie
UT Southwestern Medical Center
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