Needle aspiration in the diagnosis of soft tissue infections.
Diagnosis of soft tissue infections is often delayed or made incorrectly because of reliance on indirect means to determine the etiologic agent. A rapid, speific method is the needle aspiration of these lesions combined with Gram-stain and culture studies. More frequent use of this direct method should facilitate diagnosis and improve treatment. Seven case studies are present to illustrate the usefulness of this technique.
D000038:Abscess / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D002481:Cellulitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology; D003455:Cryptococcus neoformans / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011552:Pseudomonas Infections / Q000175:diagnosis; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis; D013297:Streptococcus pyogenes / Q000302:isolation & purification