Antibiotic prophylaxis in intraoral wounds.

This study of 100 patients was undertaken to determine the efficacy of penicillin/erythromycin prophylaxis in the management of intraoral lacerations in the pediatric population. Only six patients of the evaluable population developed infections (6.4%). Two of these patients received antibiotic prophylaxis (4%), and the other four were control patients (8%) who developed wound infections (P = 0.41). Although most injuries were minor, if the injury was large enough to require suturing, the infection rate was slightly greater in the control group. Cross-product ratios for these small sample subgroups indicated that the likelihood of infection for non-prophylactically treated patient wounds of greater than 1 cm length and/or those requiring suturing was two to three times higher than that of patients treated prophylactically. Although no statistical significance could be ascribed to the observed differences of these post hoc categories, benefit from antibiotic prophylaxis may have been quantifiable in a study designed to assess only these major wounds utilizing a large sample size. In general, routine antibiotic prophylaxis appears unwarranted for simple intraoral lacerations in children, although it may be useful when the wounds are large enough to be sutured.