Towards evidence based emergency medicine: best BETs from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Prophylactic antibiotics are not indicated in uncomplicated hand lacerations.

A short cut review was carried out to establish whether prophylactic antibiotics should be used as part of the management of uncomplicated hand lacerations. From a search of 237 papers only five presented trials addressing the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of this paper are tabulated. The clinical bottom line is that there doesn't appear to be any evidence to support the use of prophylactic antibiotics in uncomplicated hand lacerations.