DEFINITION

One of the most fearsome complications of any court, laceration, bite or another type of wound, even small, is the infection for lockjaw. It can develop days or even some weeks after the wound, giving place to a rigidity of the muscles of the jaw and of other muscles, and can come even to the convulsions and to the incapability to breathe.

YOU CAUSE. THE SOURCE OF THE INFECTION

The bacterium of the lockjaw generally is in the soil, but it can be practically in any place. If his spores enter a wound beyond the scope of the oxygen, they germinate and produce a toxin that he interferes with the nerves that control the muscles. A lockjaw infection is serious, and it can finish in the death if one has not been immunized previously.

Nevertheless, the infection for lockjaw is avoidable if a series of preventive steps follows. Consult his doctor immediately if it presents any court or wound. If he was already you vaccinated of the lockjaw many years ago, his doctor will give him probably a dose of memory of the vaccine; next his organism will make quickly the antibodies necessary to protect him against the lockjaw. If it has not received injections for the lockjaw previously, the doctor can administer the anti-tetanus antibody that is going to give him immediate protection, but only for a few weeks. Likewise, it is very important to clean the wound carefully, to remove all the remains of dead textile and to make her opened without plasters or points so that the air could reach all the parts of the wound (remember that the air kills the bacterium of the lockjaw). Several antibiotics can help to eliminate also the bacterium of the lockjaw, but it will not serve as anything if the wound has not talked each other appropriately and if an antibody dose has not been used.

PREVENTION

The active immunization is vital for the whole world before any injury happens. The vaccine of the lockjaw generally, one gives to the children inside the call D.T.P. (that includes also vaccination against the diphtheria and the tosferina). There will need, later, doses of memory of lockjaw every 10 years or at the moment when a major injury happens.

TO SEE ALSO

• Medicine of Common sense. General information

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