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Oral rofecoxib (Vioxx) may have a role in controlling postoperative pain patients undergoing knee surgery. Researchers in Chicago enrolled 70 patients who were undergoing total knee arthroplasty and randomized them to rofecoxib 50 mg the day prior to surgery, 1-2 hours prior to surgery, and for 5 days postoperatively, then 25 mg daily for another 8 days; or matching placebo at the same times.
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An outbreak of tetanus involving 6 (and possibly 7) injection drug users in England and Wales has officials concerned that others may be at risk. Six of the cases occurred during the past 3 weeks and were spread throughout the country, suggesting contamination of some type of drugpossibly heroin.
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The evolution of antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus is an epic saga. Resistance to penicillin was first reported in the 1940s, at a time when the drug still remained in short supply.
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The following summary of selected abstracts from 3 meetings will be published in multiple parts. The 43rd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) met in Chicago September 14-17, 2003.
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Consistent with the notion that sternitis always accompanies poststernotomy mediastinitis, microbiologic examination of sternal puncture specimens was highly accurate in the diagnosis of deep infection in that setting.
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Neither adding a single dose of ceftriaxone to a 10-day course of doxycycline nor extending the duration of doxycycline therapy to 20 days is better than a straightforward 10-day course of oral doxycycline in the treatment of patients with erythema migrans.
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A study of pleconaril in infants with enterovirus meningitis showed good oral availability, but the limited virus shedding and benign course of enterovirus meningitis in infants precluded identifying virological or clinical benefit.
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A patient receiving the SSRI citalopram developed fatal serotonin syndrome after beginning therapy with linezolid for MRSA infection.
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The first outbreak of human monkeypox infection in North America has resulted from exposure to infected prairie dogs.