Parenteral therapy bypasses the gastrointestinal system and hits the circulatory system directly. Researchers from the Yokohama City University Medical Center have attempted to find risk factors that could predict therapy resistance in tubo-ovarian abscess (TOA) cases. The study was published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research.
Fifty-five patients were admitted for TOA. Researchers used these admissions for the study. Twenty-eight of the patients failed to respond to parenteral therapy. The remaining 57 patients were cured via conservative methods. C-reactive protein, white blood cell count and abscess size differed between the two groups, but abscess size was the only predictive measurement in terms of parenteral therapy failure.
Conclusion: Patients with an abscess in excess of five centimeters were more likely to require advanced treatment for TOA as conservative antibiotic treatment (parenteral therapy) was not effective. Despite C-reactive protein and white blood cell count differences between the two groups, abscess size was the only factor that predicted resistance to therapy.
Source: Mizushima T, Yoshida H, Ohi Y, Ishikawa M, Hirahara F. Evaluating the risk factors for developing resistance to parenteral therapy for tubo-ovarian abscess: A case-control study. J Obstet Gynaecol Res. 2013 Mar 20. doi: 10.1111/jog.12018.
