RESUMO
Traumatic ulcers are one of the most common causes of referral to emergency wards and interfere with wound healing. Even in a complete sterile condition, all of the ulcers may be contaminated with bacteria, but a few of them progress and cause clinical manifestations. There is a controversy on the use prophylactic antibiotics in traumatic ulcers. In this study we compare the efficacy of oral and injectable forms of antibiotics in prophylaxis of infection. In this clinical trial study, 237 cases suffering from grade II traumatic ulcers were selected by simple random method and divided into 2 groups; first group was administered 1 gram cephazoline prior to suturing and received no other antibiotics, while the second group received 500 mg cephalexin capsule before suturing and continued the treatment for 24 hours. [500 mg QID] .Patients were followed up on day 7, 10 and 30 after discharge from hospital for infection of the wounds. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS 11 software using Chi-squire and Fisher exact tests. According to the findings, confounding variables such as sex, age, width of the wound, traumatic cause and site and also the time course until referral to the emergency ward were similar in both groups. Prevalence of infection in the group receiving oral and injection forms of antibiotic was 2.5% and 1.7%, respectively, difference of which was not significant.[P = 0.683]. As the prevalence of wound infection is similar in both groups, oral forms of antibiotics can be used instead of injectable forms for wound infection prophylaxis