Table 1.

 Baseline characteristics of patients (intention to treat populations). Figures are numbers (percentage) of patients unless stated otherwise

Characteristic	Pristinamycin (n=138)	Penicillin (n=150)
No of men	78	74
Mean (SD) age (years)	57 (18)	60 (18)
Mean (SD) weight (kg)	81 (20)	80 (20)
Associated disease:
At least one concurrent disease	83 (60)	88 (59)
Venous insufficiency	59 (43)	69 (46)
Cardiac failure	18 (13)	9 (6)
Type 1 diabetes	2 (1)	2 (1)
Type 2 diabetes	19 (14)	23 (15)
Alcoholism	17 (12)	8 (5)
Location of erysipelas:
Lower limb	126 (91)	145 (97)
Other location	12 (9)	5 (3)
Probable portal of entry:	131 (95)	141 (94)
Toe web intertrigo	78 (60)	94 (67)
Wound	41 (31)	36 (26)
Leg ulcer	16 (12)	26 (18)
Other lesion	44 (33)	53 (37)
Severity of erysipelas:
Severe erythema	81 (59)	102 (68)
Severe pain	54 (39)	60 (40)
Severe oedema	51 (37)	65 (43)
Mean (SD) total clinical score	4.3 (1.1)	4.5 (1.0)