Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Article about Xylazine Includes Comments from Drs. Mark Solarz and Melissa Soderquist

A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about xylazine included comments from Mark Solarz, MD, Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, and Melissa Soderquist, MD, an orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine resident at Temple University Hospital, from a September conference about wounds from xylazine, which is also known as Tranq. Xylazine is an animal sedative that has been increasingly found in fentanyl and heroin and causes fast-moving necrotic wounds and heavy sedation. Between 2019-2022, Pennsylvania was home to the highest number of xylazine-related deaths in the country per a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and xylazine spiked in the Pittsburgh area in 2023.