Optimal dosage flucloxacillin for effective treatment cellulitis (PERFECT)

Cellulitis, also known as erysipelas, is a common bacterial skin infection. The recommended treatment in primary care is 500 mg flucloxacillin tablets taken four times a day. However, there is very limited research on the effectiveness of this treatment for cellulitis in general practice. Usually, this treatment works well, but in about 8% of patients, they must go to hospital because the treatment does not work. This may be because the body does not absorb the medicine sufficient or gets rid of the medicine too quickly. Increasing the dose of flucloxacillin to 1.000 mg 4 times a day might work for these patients. However, this has never been studied before. 

Aim and approach

This study compares different treatment doses in a database of approximately 1.000.000 patients. Our aim is to demonstrate that using 1.000 mg flucloxacillin 4 times daily can prevent a large number of hospital admissions. This would provide general practitioners (GPs) with a more effective therapy for patients.