Treatment of impetigo: Paint it blue

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7472.979

BMJ 2004;329:979 (23 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7472.979

Letter

Treatment of impetigo

Paint it blue

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Koning and van der Wouden in their editorial ontreatment of impetigo discuss the relative merits of systemicand topical antibiotics that were reported in their recent Cochranereview and add that they have no evidence to support the therapeuticvalue of disinfecting agents, which they note have hardly beenstudied.¹ They comment that studies establishing the value ofdisinfecting agents are therefore most welcome.

Generations of general practitioners have treated impetigo withgentian violet, and although there has been some trial evidencethat its effectiveness extends to methicillin resistant Staphylococcusaureus,² the main support for its use is clinical experiencepassed on from one practitioner to the next and reinforced bythe rapid resolution they see when failures with more cosmeticallyacceptable topical antibiotic preparations lead to a trial ofgentian violet.

The processes developing evidence based practice must be ableto promote those treatments that . . . [Full text of this article]

Roderic S MacDonald, specialist in musculoskeletal medicine

London W4 2NL rodmacdonald@blueyonder.co.uk