Knowledge of Emergency Medicine Residents in Relation to Prevention of Tetanus

Knowledge of emergency medicine residents about the management of patients suspected of having tetanus-favoring wounds is very important due to their responsibility for the treatment of such patients. The aim of the present study was to evaluate this knowledge and making sure of the adequacy of instructions they have received in relation to prevention of tetanus.

A reliable and reproducible questionnaire was used to evaluate knowledge of all the emergency medicine residents in Imam Hussein Hospital in Tehran, Iran, about conditions favoring tetanus (9 questions) and proper interventions in such conditions (12 questions). The questionnaires were completed and scored as poor and good. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze data. Statistical significance was set at P<0.05.

In the present study, 73 emergency medicine residents were evaluated (45.2% male). Knowledge of 31 (42.5%) residents in relation to conditions favoring tetanus and 41 (56.2%) residents in correct therapeutic interventions was in good level. The most frequent incorrect answer was related to diabetic ulcers and wounds in patients with sepsis. There was an increase in scores of conditions favoring tetanus (P<0.001) and correct therapeutic interventions (P=0.001) with an increase in educational years. However, age (P=0.64), gender (P=0.31), job experience (P=0.38) and participation in educational courses (P=0.67) had no effect on the knowledge level of emergency medicine residents.

According to the findings of the present study, the knowledge of emergency medicine residents about correct management of patients suspected of tetanus was low, which emphasizes the necessity of providing further instructions on prevention of tetanus in wound management.