Which department do I go to for a tetanus shot?

Written by Liu Huan Huan

General Surgery

Updated on January 12, 2025

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Tetanus shots are widely used clinically, and patients generally receive the injection after sustaining an injury. Therefore, it is recommended that patients visit the surgical department. If at a community hospital, they should go to the surgical outpatient clinic. If in a secondary or tertiary hospital, patients can go to the surgical outpatient clinic or the emergency surgery department for treatment. After wound treatment, they can receive a tetanus shot as required. Thus, patients usually go to the surgical department or emergency surgery for the tetanus injection.

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Written by Zhang Peng

General Surgery

1min 7sec

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Can I breastfeed after getting a tetanus shot?

Current research indicates that lactating women are not contraindicated for tetanus vaccination; the main contraindication is allergy to the tetanus vaccine. Generally, if there are high-risk factors for tetanus infection, timely wound debridement and care should be performed, followed by early administration of passive immunization with tetanus vaccine. Generally, tetanus antitoxin can be used based on the results of a skin test. If the skin test result is strongly positive, its use should be avoided, and tetanus immunoglobulin should be chosen instead. The effective metabolic period of tetanus immunoglobulin is about three weeks. If high-risk factors for infection still exist beyond this time limit, timely enhancement of immune therapy should be considered. Regarding the tetanus vaccine, it is generally advised that the earlier it is administered, the better, as early administration can neutralize the tetanus toxin already present in the blood. However, if the tetanus toxin has already bound to nerve cells, treatment becomes relatively difficult.

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Written by Ma Xian Shi

General Surgery

42sec

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There are several types of tetanus shots.

Tetanus injections are generally of two types, one being tetanus antitoxin and the other is human tetanus immunoglobulin. Tetanus antitoxin, which is more commonly used in our country, is a heterologous protein prepared from horse serum, making it relatively easy to obtain. However, an allergy test is needed for its use and it is widely used in our country at present. Tetanus immunoglobulin, though an ideal medication, is more complex to prepare. Its production is complicated and limited in our country, thus it is not very widely used. Therefore, tetanus antitoxin is more broadly applied.

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Written by Zhang Peng

General Surgery

59sec

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What are the circumstances in which a tetanus shot should not be administered?

Tetanus is a strict anaerobic bacterium. Clinically, for deeper contaminated wounds, especially those contaminated by soil or punctured by rusty iron objects, an active injection of tetanus vaccine is recommended. Generally, for superficial scratches or clean and shallow wounds, as long as proper wound cleaning is performed, it is usually not necessary to administer a tetanus shot. For patients who have completed a full course of immunization or booster immunization within the last ten years and have high antibody levels in the body, if the wound is small, superficial, and free of foreign bodies or necrotic tissue residue, it is not necessary to inject the tetanus vaccine. For wounds that are larger, deeper, and heavily contaminated, with substantial residues of foreign bodies and necrotic tissue, or in cases where thorough wound cleaning is not achievable, an enhanced injection of tetanus antitoxin or immunoglobulin should be administered.

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Written by Tang Da Wei

General Surgery

44sec

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How deep is a tetanus wound?

There is no clear boundary concerning how deep a wound needs to be to carry a risk of tetanus; mainly, it depends on whether the conditions allow for anaerobic bacteria to thrive. Particularly, wounds that are very small on the surface but deep can lead to substantial proliferation of tetanus bacilli. A common example is a foot wound caused by stepping on a nail, where the exterior opening of the wound is small, but it is deep inside, and the nail surface may be rusty and also carry a large amount of tetanus bacilli. If the wound is not promptly and thoroughly cleaned, it can lead to massive growth of tetanus bacilli, resulting in the onset of severe illness in the patient.

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Written by Li Jin Quan

General Surgery

36sec

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Does tetanus cause fever?

When tetanus occurs, early symptoms mainly include dizziness, headache, fatigue, decreased appetite, weak chewing, sore jaw muscles, or tense facial muscles. Some cases show exaggerated reflexes or muscle tension. Generally, tetanus has its typical manifestations, such as difficulty in opening the mouth, risus sardonicus (a sardonic smile), opisthotonus (arching of the back), and stiff neck. In clinical practice, a few cases may even have a fever. Therefore, fever in tetanus is only seen in individual cases.