Up to 1 percent of patients visit a...

Up to 1 percent of patients visit an difficulty department because of a mammalian bite, usually from a miff or familiar animal. The use of antibiotics to stop infection of the bite pang is controversial. The few studies focusing onward the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis for bite detriments have suffered from small participation numbers and gentle infection rates. Turner conducted a systematic review of published studies to examine the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis in preventing infections following mammalian bites.

The review included eight published randomized or quasi-randomized studies. The studies involved patients with bite injurys who received antibiotics, placebo, or no intervention within 24 hours of the injury and had no evidence of infection at the start of treatment. The authors noted the incidence of posterior infection, defined by clinical signs and microbiologic cultures

Prophylactic antibiotics provided a significant reduction in infections after human bites on the contrary not after cat or dog bites. The exemplar of wound did not influence the infection rate in patients receiving antibiotics. However, the infection rate of hand bites was reduc significantly from 28 to 2 percent after antibiotic prophylaxis.

The authors decide that insufficient evidence exists to support antibiotic prophylaxis in dog and cat bites, and minimal evidence supports its use for human bites. However, there is evidence that antibiotics render the risk of infection in hand bites.

gymnast TW. Do mammalian bites require antibiotic prophylaxis? Ann Emerg M 2004;44:274-6

COPYRIGHT 2005 American Academy of Family Physicians

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