Henry WildeKasien BhanganadaSupawat ChutivongseApinya SiakasemWaranya BoonchaiC. SupichChulalongkorn UniversityMahidol University2018-08-102018-08-101992-01-01Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Vol.86, No.1 (1992), 86-8818783503003592032-s2.0-0026528921https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/22315In Asia, it is still controversial whether it is safe to inject a contaminated animal bite wound with a foreign protein such as equine or human rabies immune globulin, even though this is recommended by the World Health Organization. A prospective study of 114 severe animal bite wounds which were injected with equine or human rabies immune globulin revealed an overall incidence of gross infection of 11·4%. No matched control group of patients bitten by animals whose wounds were not injected with immune globulin could be studied in this environment with a high prevalence of canine rabies. The incidence of wound infection in lacerations inflicted by sharp objects and sutured under local anaesthesia was therefore studied prospectively in 100 Thai patients from a similar socio-economic milieu; it was found to be 13%. Wound infection was more common in animal bites and lacerations of the lower extremities. It is concluded that injecting a properly cleansed bite wound with equine or human rabies immune globulin is a safe practice and should be performed whenever there is a possibility that the biting animal might have rabies. © Oxford University Press.Mahidol UniversityImmunology and MicrobiologyMedicineArticleSCOPUS10.1016/0035-9203(92)90455-L