Search for tag: "antibiotic"

Announcer: "Health Hacks" with Dr. Troy Madsen, on The Scope.

Dr. Madsen: Today's health hack is having an antibiotic in your bag when you travel. The antibiotic I really have in mind here is Ciprofloxacin. And the reason for it is urinary tract infections. So if you're female and you're traveling, you may have experienced this before. I mean anyone could experience it, but urinary tract infections are more likely in females. And if you're traveling and you experience a urinary tract infection, you know how miserable this can be.

If you're in a foreign country or just even another city, just trying to get in to find health care, interrupt your plans, getting the help you need to get a prescription for exactly what you know you need can be an incredible headache. So I think it's not at all unreasonable if you're going on a big trip or, you know, if you meet with your doctor just to ask them, "Can I get a prescription for an antibiotic to have on hand for this kind of situation?"

I think it's a reasonable thing to have. Typically you know when you have a urinary tract infection, and studies that have been done have shown that if a person feels like they're having a urinary tract infection, they're probably right.

So the health hack here is have an antibiotic on hand. Ciprofloxacin is one that I recommend that works very well for urinary tract infections. Take it with you when you travel. If you have symptoms of urinary tract infection, you can take this, avoid a trip to an ER or to some health care facility in a foreign country.

Announcer: For more health hacks, check out thescoperadio.com. Produced by University of Utah Health.

Interviewer: You have a pretty bad sore throat. Dr. Tom Miller, is that worth a trip to the doctor?

Dr. Miller: It might be. Most sore throats are caused by viruses. But if you have tender, swollen lymph nodes in your neck, if you have a fever of greater than 100 or 100.5, and if you look in the back of your throat with a penlight and you see sort of plaques on your tonsils, there's a good chance that you have strep throat, especially if you live with young kids who also get strep throat more commonly than adults. It might be worth a trip to the doctor.

He'll evaluate those same things. If you have all three of them, he's likely to give you an antibiotic. If you have one or two of them, he'll do what's called a rapid strep test. That will tell him if you have strep throat, and if you do, you'll have an antibiotic. That will reduce the symptom duration by one or two days and you'll feel better and get back to work.

Interviewer: So strep throat pretty much the only sore throat that you're going to get an antibiotic for.

Dr. Miller: There are others but more rarely.

updated: November 11, 2021
originally published: July 13, 2017

Dr. Gellner: Everyone wants pretty feet, but what if your child's toe gets all red and angry looking? The problem might be an ingrown toenail.

Announcer: Keep your kids healthy and happy. You are now entering the Healthy Kid Zone with Dr. Cindy Gellner on The Scope.

Dr. Gellner: An ingrown toenail is a toenail that grows into the skin of the toe, and it's usually the big toe. It causes your child to have tenderness, redness, and swelling of the skin around the corner of the toenail on one of the big toes. Ingrown toenails are usually caused by tight shoes, which is very common with growing kids' feet, or improper cutting of the toenails.

They can take several weeks to heal, so how can you help your child during this time? First, soak your child's foot twice a day in warm water and antibacterial soap for 20 minutes. While the foot is soaking, massage the swollen part of the cuticle outward away from the nail. If your child's cuticle is just red and irritated, an antibiotic ointment is probably not needed.

But if the cuticle becomes swollen or oozes pus, put over-the-counter antibiotic ointment on the area where the pus is coming out three times a day for up to a week. The pain your child has is usually caused by the corner of the toenail rubbing against the raw cuticle. When to See Your Pediatrician

If the soaks and ointment don't help, it's time to see your child's pediatrician. Your child's pediatrician may need to cut the corner of the nail off or take more off of the nail than just the corner so that the irritated tissue can heal more easily.

Your pediatrician only needs to do this once in most cases. The main purpose of this is to help the nail grow over the nail cuticle rather than get stuck in it. Finally, weather permitting, of course, have your child wear sandals or go barefoot as much as possible to prevent pressure on the toenail until it heals. If your child must wear closed shoes, protect the ingrown toenail by taping a thin piece of gauze over the infected area.

Ingrown toenails can often be prevented. Again, the most common cause of ingrown toenails are those shoes, narrow shoes in particular. So make sure your child's shoes fit properly. Get rid of any pointed or tight shoes. After the cuticle has healed, cut the toenails straight across, leaving the corners visible. You can gently file them so that they're more rounded and don't poke.

Don't cut the nails too short. If your child has ingrown nails over and over, your pediatrician may refer you to a foot doctor called a podiatrist, who can better help manage recurrent nail problems.

Announcer: Have a question about a medical procedure? Want to learn more about a health condition? With over 2,000 interviews with our physicians and specialists, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find what you want to know. Check it out at TheScopeRadio.com.

updated: September 28, 2018
originally published: May 8, 2016

Interviewer: A lot of us when we go hiking or camping take a first aid kit, but what are the three most important things that you should have with you at all times, like if you were on a desert island of hiking and space was a consideration? We'll find out next on The Scope.

Announcer: Medical news and research from University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Interviewer: Dr. Troy Madsen is emergency room medicine at University of Utah Healthcare. Let's talk about the three things that you would absolutely want to have with you if you were out in a wilderness situation?

Dr. Madsen: Three things I'd want to have with me, and I've thought about this because you always think about this whole desert island scenario. Who knows if any of us will ever be on a deserted island, but for whatever reason we always like to think of these scenarios. I've thought, knowing what I know and doing what I do, what are the three most useful things I would like to have? There are three things.
Number one is an antibiotic. This antibiotic would be one that typically is going to treat skin infections or pneumonia or even a urinary tract infection, just the common things. If I had to name one I'd probably name levofloxacin. That's a common antibiotic we use for pneumonia. It can also help with skin infections if I were to get a skin infection there and also with urinary tract infections, so kind of some of the more common things. That's one of those things if you're out on your own and you've got access to no medical resources that can make a huge difference and potentially could save your life if we're talking a very severe infection where you can't get medical help for an extended period of time, for days or weeks. That would probably be the first thing.
The next thing would be a nausea medication. There's one called Zofran. The generic name is Ondansetron. This is one that used to be used a lot for chemotherapy patients, but has become much cheaper. It's essentially very cheap now just in pill form. It requires a prescription, but it's one of those things where if you had vomiting and were very sick, this could make a huge difference. Just being able to take one of these pills, you're going to prevent yourself from severe dehydration and a lot of the complications that come from that.
The last thing would be something for lacerations or injuries that come up. In my mind, I'd kind of think maybe some sutures where I could stitch myself up. But the thing that's super easy to use for lacerations that aren't huge but are still pretty big is something called Dermabond. That's the brand name, but quite honestly, Dermabond is nothing more than super glue.

Interviewer: Really?

Dr. Madsen: It's just super glue. They just changed it a little bit so it doesn't sting as much, but it's the same stuff. I would just take a tube of super glue. You can use that on a wound, or personally I would carry Dermabond just because I've used it. If you have a wound, even if it's a gaping wound, you can just wash it out really well, hold the edges together, put a line of this stuff over it and it dries within 30 seconds. Put another line to kind of hold things together, and you could make a big difference for a laceration, potentially preventing complications and infection just by having this available.

Interviewer: Wow, it sounds like when you're out the three big concerns, I think this is telling in another way, are dehydration because of some sort of a stomach issue, infections and infections again.

Dr. Madsen: And injuries and lacerations. Yes, exactly. I figure a lot of the other stuff. You think, "Okay. What if I broke my arm?" Well, you've got sticks out there. You could make a splint.

Interviewer: You could make a splint.

Dr. Madsen: You could do that. That's the sort of thing you could deal with. It's always hard to say. There are other things that would be nice to have, like maybe an ace bandage or some Band-Aids and that, but I can make do with that. These are the three things I've thought it would be great to have these things if I ever needed them and were ever in a situation out in the middle of nowhere and needed them. These can make a huge difference.

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