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Evidence summaries

Antibiotic Treatment for Infected Bites

There is consensus that antibiotics might possibly be beneficial for infected mammalian bites, but there is no evidence from controlled trials. Level of evidence: "D"

A topic in Clinical Evidence 1 summarizes the results of one RCT (n=61) comparing penicillin with or without dicloxacillin versus amoxicillin/amocicillin/clavulanic acid. Treatments were given for 5 days in people bitten less than 8 hours previously or in those without clinical infection (n=34) and for 10 days in those bitten more than 8 hours previously or with clinical infection (n=27). There was no significant difference in failure rate (1/31 (3%) vs 3/30 (10%), RR 0.32, 95% CI 0.03 to 2.54). There were no RCTs comparing antibiotics with placebo. However, there is consensus that they are likely to be beneficial.

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by sparse data.

The following decision support rules contain links to this evidence summary:

    References

    • Medeiros IM, Saconato H. What are the effects of treatments for infected mammalian bites. Bites (mammalian). Clinical Evidence 2005;13:24852486.

Primary/Secondary Keywords