Introduction:

skin and soft tissue infections are a common cause of medical consultations with a wide range of clinical symptoms. The growing resistance to Staphylococcus aureus represents a significant therapeutic challenge.

Objective:

to describe the clinical and microbiological characteristics in patients with skin and soft tissue infections admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine of the Hospital Nacional of Itauguá during 2024.

Methodology:

a descriptive, analytical, retrospective, cross-sectional observational study was conducted using data from clinical records.

Results:

224 medical records were evaluated, with a diagnosis of skin and soft tissue infection. Males predominated in 71 %. The mean age was 54±16 years. The most frequent comorbidity was high blood pressure (48 %). Cellulitis was the most frequent skin and soft tissue infection (63 %). Isolations from cutaneous sources and blood cultures were 66 % and 47 %, respectively. The most frequently isolated germs were Staphylococcus aureus (29 %), coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (26.6 %), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (16.1 %). S. aureus showed a resistance of (58 %) to oxacillin and erythromycin (52 %). Sepsis occurred in 7 % of cases and was associated with older age, female sex, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and chronic kidney disease. Mortality was 9 % with a strong association with sepsis in the multivariate analysis.

Conclusions:

SSTIs mostly affect men; however, in this series, female gender was associated with higher mortality. The high resistance of S. aureus to oxacillin in a sample with national validity emphasizes the need to update empirical treatment protocols in Paraguay.

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