Evaluation of Prophylactic Benzathine-Penicillin in the Prevention of Recurrent Erysipelas

Abstract

After a first episode of erysipelas, 12 patients did not receive any prophylactic antibiotics, while 12 were treated with benzathine-penicillin, 2,400,000 U every 3 weeks for 6 months. The prophylactic regimen did prevent relapses, but as soon as it was stopped, the risk of recurrence came back unchanged. So in order to be efficient, prophylaxis should be administered on a long-term basis, which implies defining criteria for its indications. We propose to treat all patients with obvious risk factor(s) and to wait for the first recurrence before treating the other patients.