What is antimicrobial prophylaxis?
The term "prophylaxis" refers to the use of a preventive measure before it is strictly needed. The antimicrobial prophylaxis, which is the technique of medicine to prevent infections in certain situations, is primarily limited to patients undergoing some operations, and people who can infect disease on holiday. Although antibiotics are commonly used in antimicrobial prophylaxis that focus only on bacteria, medicines that focus on other microbes such as fungi or parasites, they also fall under the definition of antimicrobial prophylaxis.
Malaria is one disease that can prevent antimicrobial prophylaxis for people passengers in affected areas. Usually this includes a passenger who used antimalarial pills according to the doctor's instructions during the holiday. The traveler does not know whether it can be infected with mala -parasite, but the use of the drug will still prevent any infection from the spread of mosquitoes. This type of defense against infection varies withdrawn because the vaccines contain parts of the ina fek organism so that the immune system can recognize its presence and defeat its attempt at infection.
When the natural defense of a person against infection, such as open surgery, increases the risk of serious infections. In order to face this, surgeons can lay the patient on antimicrobial prophylaxide before, during and after the planned surgery. People who suffer injuries and receive treatment when the wound seems to be pure and uninfected can also receive prophylactic drugs to prevent the infectious organism from colonizing the wound.
The main disadvantage of antimicrobial prophylaxis in all situations is that all drugs bear the risk of side effects. Doctors balance the risk for health from side effects against risk for health potential infection in assessing whether antimicrobial prophylaxis is necessary. In addition, if the antimicrobial value usedIt Iifs bacteria, can change the natural bacterial population present in the patient's digestive system, which may expose the patient the risk of further infections later.
In general, only a situation where a patient is of high risk of serious infection is guaranteed by antimicrobial prophylaxis. Operations such as open heart surgery, insertion of artificial prostheses, such as hip and surgery on blood vessels, are some of the situations where prophylactic drugs can be useful. Injuries, such as bite of animals or tick bite, can also expose a person the risk of serious infection and in these cases can be used prophylaxis. Because bacterial infections are the most important cause of wound infection, the most common form of prophylaxis is an antibiotic that can kill a wide range of species.