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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Persisting Infected Cartilage Piercing, Taking Cephalexin. Other Options?

For the past 3 weeks my cartilage piercing has been infected. I had it pierced nearly a year ago and all was fine until it became very irritated, red, swollen and scar tissue began forming. For 8 days I've been taking cephalexin 500mg as prescribed. The doctor tried to drain the abscess today through a superficial incision, which did not work. I'm now using muciprocin ointment twice daily and the cephalxin is about to run out, and my ear is still infected. Is there anything else I can do?
posted on Sat, 11 May 2013
Twitter Thu, 23 May 2013 Answered on
Twitter Fri, 24 May 2013 Last reviewed on
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ENT Specialist,  's  Response
Hi and thanks for the query,
The bacteria causing the infection is not sensitive to cephalexin and hence failed to respond to treatment.
Persistent infections of the cartilage are frequently caused by a bacteria called pseudomonas.
Of all the antibiotics only one oral and 5 injectable antibiotics are effective against pseudomonas.
See a doctor again and insist on getting a culture and sensitivity test which will give us information about the organism and also tell us which antibiotic it is sensitive to. This test will guide the further treatment.
Regards,
Dr Rajkishori.
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Persisting Infected Cartilage Piercing, Taking Cephalexin. Other Options?

Hi and thanks for the query, The bacteria causing the infection is not sensitive to cephalexin and hence failed to respond to treatment. Persistent infections of the cartilage are frequently caused by a bacteria called pseudomonas. Of all the antibiotics only one oral and 5 injectable antibiotics are effective against pseudomonas. See a doctor again and insist on getting a culture and sensitivity test which will give us information about the organism and also tell us which antibiotic it is sensitive to. This test will guide the further treatment. Regards, Dr Rajkishori.