Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole in the treatment of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia osteomyelitis.

in 99 patients (79%) who received ribavirin for HCPS, and 26 (21%) required blood transfusions. Three subjects were withdrawn from the study because of pancreatitis. Although we agree that it can be difficult to obtain larger sample sizes in studies of rare infectious diseases (as evidenced by the low enrollment rate in the study of HCPS by Mertz et al. [1]), one should be clear about the limitations of the data imposed by smaller sample sizes when evaluating the safety, as well as the efficacy, of drugs.