J Korean Neurol Assoc.  1984 Dec;2(2):120-126.

A Clinical Study of Tetanus 92 Cases

• Park KD
• Seonwoo IN
• Kim JS
• Kim KH

Abstract

Authors reviewed clinical records of 92 patients with tetanus from January 1974 to December 1983 at Severance Hospital and the following results wre obtained. 1) There were about 2.2 times more cases of neonatal tetanus than that of nonneonatal. The admitted cases of tetanus decreased in 1980's compared to those of 1970's. 2) The male versus female ratio was 3 : 1 not only in nonneonatal but also in neonatal teanus. 3) There was a tendency of higher mortality when the site of injury was on the central part of the body than on the distal. 4) Most cases of tetanus developed after the injury with bactrial contamination as expected, but a few cases are due to only trivial injury such as acupuncture or injection without overt contamination. 5) There was a close relationship between the incubation period and mortality in neonatal tetaus but no such definite relationship in nonneonatal tetaus. 6) The duraton of admission was about 3 weeks and the majority of deaths occureed in less than one week of admission. 7) There was no statistically significant difference in mortality between the group who used tetanus antitoxin from animal and that who used human tetanus immuneglobulin.

MeSH Terms

Acupuncture
Animals
Female
Humans
Male
Mortality
Tetanus Antitoxin
Tetanus*
Tetanus Antitoxin