Antibiotics only if fractured?
My 3 year old daughter got her pinky finger closed in the door last night. It broke the skin. We took her to urgent care and they did an x-ray. While waiting for the results, the tech said that if there was a fracture they would put her on antibiotics. The way I understood it, they would skip the antibiotics if there was no fracture.
She ended up having a hairline fracture and is now on Keflex. Why would they only prescribe the antibiotics if the bone was broken?
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This is known as antibiotic prophylaxis. It is to prevent infection in the bone (osteomyelitis).
If the bone surface is intact, pathogens like bacteria cannot penetrate it easily, but in the presence of an open fracture (when the bony injury is exposed to the environment due to skin and subcutaneous tissue damage) antibiotics are used to prevent infection.
In some countries, an open fracture may be known as a compound fracture.
Source:
Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Open Fractures in the Emergency Department
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