Pediatric Tetanus in Central Pennsylvania

Abstract

Approximately 20% of the nationally reported tetanus infections in children aged 0 to 14 years that occurred in the United States between 2005 and 2015 were treated at Penn State Children's Hospital. With an electronic medical record search, we identified 5 cases of pediatric tetanus; 100% of these cases occurred in unimmunized children. Their median length of stay was 10 days, and the costs were significant.

The Role of Surgical Debridement in the Treatment of Systemic Tetanus

“…Postoperatively, the intraoperative cultures grew methicillinsensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA), with no anaerobic growth, so his antibiotics were transitioned to cefazolin. He was noted 2 days later to have improved symptoms, with a total length of stay lasting 15 days, less than that in some previous reports where systemic tetanus involved a median hospital stay of 10 to 39 days 2,5,6 . The patient was discharged with a 4-week course of cefalexin to treat his osteomyelitis, and diazepam for muscle spasms.…”

“…Tetanus is an infection of Clostridium tetani characterized by painful muscular spasms and hypertonia with the potential to be life-threatening. C. tetani is a Gram-positive, spore-forming obligate anaerobe found in soil, manure, dust, or rusty metal, which must penetrate skin (typically through a puncture wound) to elicit its effects usually 7 to 10 days later 1,2 . Tetanus occurs most commonly in the elderly and unvaccinated individuals 1 .…”

Generalized tetanus: a pediatric case report and literature review

“…Symptoms of tetanus can appear days to weeks after a wound 7 . This disease is typically accompanied by symptoms such as dysphagia, muscular spasms, and trismus of the head and neck 8 .…”