There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) are common and range in severity from minor,
self-limiting, superficial infections to life-threatening diseases requiring all the
resources of modern medicine. The classification of SSTIs can be based on the anatomical
site, clinical severity or microbial cause, but some classifications divide SSTIs
into complicated and uncomplicated infections. Community-acquired SSTIs are most commonly
caused by staphylococci or streptococci, but almost any organism is capable of causing
inflammation within soft tissue. Recent epidemiological trends have shown an increase
not only in healthcare-associated meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA),
but also in MRSA acquired in the community. Many of the latter strains produce exotoxins
and are epidemiologically distinct from healthcare-acquired strains. Factors that
may affect the microbial cause include underlying disease such as diabetes or immune
dysfunction; hospital attendance, injecting drug use, travel, animal contact and environmental
contamination.