Suppurative lymphadenitis

Suppurative lymphadenitis is an important and common form of soft tissue infection. Most acute cases of suppurative lymphadenitis are caused by Staphylococcus aureus or by Streptococcus pyogenes . Empiric antibiotic therapy is frequently successful in the early stages of the disease process, but increasing prevalence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus in particular has necessitated a shift in antibiotic choice that is dictated primarily by specific local resistance patterns. Several other organisms and noninfectious inflammatory processes may give rise to a clinical syndrome suggestive of suppurative lymphadenitis. Failure to respond to empiric antibiotics should trigger a diagnostic re-evaluation to determine the need for surgical intervention and/or the possibility of alternative microbiologic diagnoses.