Prescription of antibiotics: does it alter the outcome for patients who have fractures of the angle of the mandible?

We retrospectively studied 708 consecutive patients at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, to find out whether one of the four antibiotic protocols in use conferred any advantage (or disadvantage) on a patient who had a fractured angle of the mandible, and there was none. However, the time from initial injury until the time of the first dose of antibiotic was important. Clinically, if patients waited more than 72hours after the injury before the first dose of antibiotic was given, they had a three times higher rate of postoperative infection than patients who were given their first dose between 24 and 72hours after the injury.

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