Use of antibiotics in open tibial fractures.

Data concerning 1102 open fractures are presented with bacteriologic and antibiotic considerations analyzed in 363 open tibiae fractures treated in three prospective one-year studies during the period from 1970 to 1980. The highest infection rate was in open tibiae receiving no antibiotics (24%, 6 infections in 25 open tibial fracture wounds), and the lowest was in the group receiving a cephalosporin and an aminoglycoside (4.5%, 5 infections in 109 open tibial fracture wounds).