Prophylactic Antimicrobials in Wound Care

Prophylactic antimicrobials in wound care are extremely important to heal the wound in time and avoid further infection or other unusual infections. Though normal medication is sufficient to heal the wound, bacterial or viral infection may regenerate if the cells and tissues in the affected area are not able to resist to exterior infections. Antimicrobials play an important role in providing the cells and tissues with all the necessary resources to resist any further damage to the area and assist in fast recovery from the injury.

Meaning and Importance of Prophylactic Antimicrobials in Wound Care

Prophylactic antimicrobials are the main energy providers to cells and tissues and help them in tackling the infection at the earliest and prevent generation of microbes, bacteria or viruses. Such antimicrobials are commonly known as antibiotics and play an important role in curing the injury in the minimum possible time. Antibiotics also help in the post-treatment period to prevent the infections from arising in the same or other areas of the body. Frequent infections and unhealed injuries may lead to severe health hazards and affect the immune system of the person. Hence, use of prophylactic antimicrobials in wound care is extremely important to avoid further health issues.

Process of consumption of prophylactic antimicrobials is known as antimicrobial prophylaxis. The process is highly beneficial in post-operative care and is recommended for most of the disorders in which post-treatment health complications are likely to occur. Antimicrobial prophylaxis can be a preventive as well as curative measure. It can be beneficial to cure one infection and prevent occurrence of another. Thus, the process is quite common and practiced worldwide these days.

Antimicrobial prophylaxis in wound care is also beneficial economically. Recurrent infections and unhealed injuries may require regular medication or even frequent hospitalization. The cost of treatment keeps rising and the output may or may not be beneficial in the long run. Also, the treatment is just a temporary measure to curb disease and is not a permanent solution. Thus, prophylactic antimicrobials in wound care are necessary to make the immune system fight infections by itself without investing any special costs on treatment. It also decreases the need and tenure of hospitalization and thus, decreases the overall cost of cure.

Wounds can be external or internal and need to be treated in a manner suitable to the victim. Over-dose of antimicrobials cannot yield desired results and may cause severe side-effects on the patient's health. Also, prolonged consumption of antibiotics doesn't guarantee better and permanent cure of disease. In fact, prolonged consumption or intake of antibiotics too often may put a bad impact on the person's health and make the antibodies ineffective to infections and injuries. Hence, proper medical supervision is very important while undergoing post exposure prophylaxis. Dosage and tenure of medication should be strictly in accordance with the prescription recommended by the physician.

Prophylactic Antimicrobials in Wound Care Tips

Understanding the nature and root-cause of the infection or injury is very important before going for antimicrobial prophylaxis. Healing a wound is dependent not only on consuming proper medicines but also on the personal medical history. People suffering from long-term disease like diabetes and orthopedic disorders may require more time to heal a wound as compared to those who do not have any such diseases. Location of wound is also important and should be considered before taking prophylactic antimicrobials.

Surgical wounds are more complicated to heal as compared to normal ones. This is because a person may suffer from various health complications during surgery as loss of blood and instability in the blood pressure levels is considerably high. Hence, intake of apt antibiotics is extremely necessary in such cases as wrong or over-dose of medicines may directly affect the health of the patient. Also, a patient is quite weak physically and the immune system also weakens. Hence, it should be ensured that intake of prophylactic antimicrobials doesn't lead to further complications.

Over-dose of antimicrobials may display various different symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pains or nausea. This again depends on the purpose of taking antimicrobials. Antibiotics should be taken after ensuring their coordination with other medical treatments a person might be undergoing. These medicines should not nullify the effect of other medicines or increase the treatment period unnecessarily.

Prophylactic antimicrobials in wound care can be fruitful if taken in accordance with the severity of disease. Antimicrobial prophylaxis should be taken with extreme care if the wounds are internal. Usage of antibiotics have reduced the number of deaths due to infections to a great extent and provided people with effective and suitable medical options to treat their health disorders in the minimum possible time and in an affordable manner.