Think which antibiotic ointment you put on a child’s wound is critical to how well it heals? Well, think again because a new study shows that when timely and properly performed cleaning is administered, healing is achieved, no matter what choice of antibiotic treatment may be administered. MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) antibiotic-resistant bacterium is a deadly infection that has been plaguing hospital patients and staff for years. This bacterium is often community associated, which means it can come from common and everyday activities outside the hospital. Knowing how to heal a wound when MRSA was present was the subject of a Johns Hopkins Children’s Center Study.
For Child’s Skin Wound Think Clean
When a child gets a scrape, cut or otherwise troublesome wound to their skin, often the first thought is to reach for the topical antibiotic to slather it on. Think again and think careful cleaning because that is what the researchers discovered in their study. Originally they were comparing the efficacy of two common antibiotics used to treat staph skin infections. What they discovered, after randomly treating 191 children with the antibiotics is that proper wound treatment care and not the antibiotics may have may have been the key to the overall healing because 95% of the kids got well in a week, regardless of what antibiotic they were treated with. Aaron Chen, M.D., an emergency physician at Hopkins Children’s, was the study lead investigator.
Hand Washing Works
The first line of defense for hospital based MRSA has long been proper gloving and frequent hand washing. Since 20 to 30 percent of even healthy individuals' skin or inside of the nose has been shown to have Staphylococcus aureus, it seems very basic to again repeat the necessity of proper hygienic cleansing in order to prevent the staph, under the right conditions, from becoming an infection. Hand washing stations have been set up wherever possible in facilities to enable visitors to clean up. Hand sanitizers and alcohol cleansing aids are also visible for easy cleansing before entering a patient’s room. It's all about keeping the touchable areas from cross-contamination.
Careful Cleaning Needed First
When a child gets a wound, obviously the first and foremost action is to properly clean the wound. This is proper wound care, and proper wound care, not antibiotics, may well hold the key to good healing without the threat of infection. Clean the wound properly, drain it if necessary and be sure it remains clean. This could truly make a real difference between quick healing or the start of an infectious wound site. Of course, wanting to put on an antibiotic helper to heal is natural, but just don’t rely on the antibiotic to do a job it may not be able to do, as MRSA is notoriously antibiotic-resistant. Getting it clean and keeping it clean may well be the bottom line in the good healing arena.
Source:
- Karen Carroll, M.D., Marie Diener-West, Ph.D., Tracy Ross, M.S., Joyce Ordun, M.S., C.R.N.P., Mitchell Goldstein, M.D., Gaurav Kulkarni, M.D., J.B. Cantey, M.D. Pediatrics, The Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, March 2011
Brenda K. Oswalt - Brenda Oswalt is a French trained cook, writer, businesswoman/inventor who holds several medical patents.
