Treatment

Treatment may include:

• Antibiotics, including penicillin, clindamycin, erythromycin, or metronidazole (metronidazole has been most successful)
• Bedrest with a nonstimulating environment (dim light, reduced noise, and stable temperature)
• Medicine to reverse the poison (tetanus immune globulin)
• Muscle relaxers such as diazepam
• Sedatives
• Surgery to clean the wound and remove the source of the poison (debridement)

Breathing support with oxygen, a breathing tube, and a breathing machine may be necessary.

Prognosis (Expectations)

Without treatment, one out of four infected people die. the death rate for newborns with untreated tetanus is even higher. with proper treatment, less than 10% of infected patients die.

Wounds on the head or face seem to be more dangerous than those on other parts of the body. If the person survives the acute illness, recovery is generally complete. Uncorrected episodes of hypoxia (lack of oxygen) caused by muscle spasms in the throat may lead to irreversible brain damage.

Complications

• Airway obstruction
• Respiratory arrest
• Heart failure
• Pneumonia
• Fractures
• Brain damage due to lack of oxygen during spasms

Calling your Health Care Provider

Call your health care provider if you have an open wound, particularly if:

• You are injured outdoors.
• The wound has been in contact with soil.
• You have not received a tetanus booster (vaccine) within 5 years or you are not sure of your vaccination status.

Call for an appointment with your health care provider if you have never been immunized against tetanus as an adult or child, if your children have not been immunized, or if you are unsure of your tetanus immunization (vaccine) status.

Review Date : 12/13/2009Reviewed By : David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., inc.

The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies. Links to other sites are provided for information only — they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. © 1997- 2010 A.D.A.M., inc. any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

Tags: Tetanus, Tetanus Treatment.

Researchers have been able to detect “markers” in the blood that identify the disease three to five years before any memory loss occurs.

The breakthrough means that treatment for the disease could be started before irreversible brain damage has been caused – dramatically slowing down progression.

The same technology could also make it easier to spot other disease such as Parkinson’s and hard-to-detect cancers, said the researchers.

Around 750,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia, more than half of whom have Alzheimer’s.

At present the only way for sure to know if someone has suffered from the condition is to carry out a brain examination after their death.

Scientists have long been trying to discover ways of detect antibodies, chemicals and other substances in the blood that identify the body is fighting the condition.

But this has proved elusive until now.

In the new study, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida, have come up with a new approach by manufacturing thousands of molecules in different shapes – known as peptoids -designed to react with antibodies.

This suggests these antibodies are unique to the condition.

Further tests on six patients and laboratory mice showed that it was 93 per cent accurate and could eventually be used to detect the condition up to five years in advance.

Professor Thomas Kodadek, who led the research, said tests on thousands more patients was needed to test the accuracy of the test.

“If this works in Alzheimer’s disease, it suggests it is a pretty general platform that may work for a lot of different diseases,” he said.

Experts described the research as exciting but cautioned that it is still in the early stages.

Dr Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “This is a refreshing new approach to diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease which holds promise.

“Early diagnosis is very important and a simple non-invasive blood test for Alzheimer’s disease would be invaluable.

“However, this research is in the early stages and more investigation is needed to find out it if it can be developed in to a reliable and practical test for the future.

“As a million people develop dementia in the next 10 years we urgently need more funding to find reliable tests for the diseases that cause dementia.”

Dr Bryce Vissel, head of research into neurodegenerative diseases at the Garvan Institute in Australia, said: “This exciting study has significant implications for advancing understanding and treatments of diseases like multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

“This is a step towards being able to develop better treatments because we may now be able to identify people early in the disease and test drugs on them before the disease is too advanced.

“Perhaps even more importantly, the study offers a new approach to identify disease markers in the blood which could have significant implications for accurately diagnosing a range of diseases.”

The research was published in the journal Cell.