Tigecycline: an antibiotic for the twenty-first century.

This Supplement in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy comprises a series of papers reporting on 'real-life' clinical experience with tigecycline. The data reported are derived from five European observational studies on the use of tigecycline, either as monotherapy or in combination with other antibiotics, for the treatment of complicated skin and soft-tissue infections or complicated intra-abdominal infections. Taken together, this collection of articles gives clinical insight into the use of tigecycline for the treatment of complicated infections.