antibiotics when white blood cell count is high (implant, cold, infection)

[kelly237]

Help me understand why the hospital would do this.

My husband is in the hospital following double knee replacement surgery
a week ago . Infection of course is one of the greatest concerns.
Friday they told him he had a slightly elevated white blood count
that could indicate an infection somewhere.
Saturday they ran lots of blood test and urinalysis.
Sunday they decide to put him on an antibiotic.

I am no doctor but why not just start full spectrum antibiotics
when they first saw the white blood count high.

If fact why not do preventive antibiotics if infection is such an hight danger immediately following surgery???

[Beth56]

A high white blood cell count can occur due to stress on the body such as surgery, and other reasons. I think what they did is appropriate. My mother in-law recently had a knee replacement. No antibiotics given at all. A couple months down the road she did have to have them when an infection became apparent. She is now 5 months post surgery and doing well.

I am currently battling a high white blood cell count for unknown reasons. Had all the tests and they have not put me on antibiotics.

I hope all is well for your husband and he recovers well.

[Aptor hours]

I'm just guessing here because I just had my appendix out and I did recieve antibiotics and did have a high white blood cell count. I also work as a RX tech and I do know they do want to be careful about using antibiotics so that the bacteria doesn't become immune. Or if there is any chance that you have a viral type of thing going on then antibiotics would be of no help. Again I am just wildly guessing with a little bit of knowledge which can on occasion be worse than none.

[bluedevilz]

Originally Posted by kelly237

Help me understand why the hospital would do this.

My husband is in the hospital following double knee replacement surgery
a week ago . Infection of course is one of the greatest concerns.
Friday they told him he had a slightly elevated white blood count
that could indicate an infection somewhere.
Saturday they ran lots of blood test and urinalysis.
Sunday they decide to put him on an antibiotic.

I am no doctor but why not just start full spectrum antibiotics
when they first saw the white blood count high.

If fact why not do preventive antibiotics if infection is such an hight danger immediately following surgery???

Every patient typically receives a dose of intravenous antibiotics prior to the incision being made in orthopaedic surgery when an implant is to be used...

There is good science to promote this practice.

There is equally good science to show that "prophylactic" antibiotic use after surgery is useless in trying to "prevent" an infection.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

There are many different types of bacteria. W/o a culture, giving an antibiotic blindly could be useless.

[kelly237]

Thanks for all the answers.
He is doing great!!!

[Laurie40]

My husband had knee replacement and it clearly states on the post op information we were sent home with that if he got sick with a cold or anything to contact them. Well, he did and the doctor said if he ended up with a fever at some point to call back and they would put him on antibiotics...apparently the knee could be compromised from infection in any other part of the body. Increases in white blood cell counts usually means anything from stress to fighting off infections or colds is my understanding.

[myrc60]

Yes, that is true. If he gets a fever it is likely that infection has set in and that will lower WBC.

[Ashlie76]

I was supposed to have surgery this week and my wbc was high my doctor put me on antibiotics for a wk now my orthopedic surgeon was mad idk I'm so confused I need to get this back surgery over with my l4 l5 lumbar the day of my surgery i was hooked up to the Iv n my orthopedic surgeon comes in says I wanna recheck ur wbc of course he comes back in says ur going home i can't do ur surgery ur wbc is way too high it was 15

[KathrynAragon]

Be very careful with antibiotics, especially with those in the fluoroquinolone family (Cipro, Levaquin, etc). Taking them for minor infections is like going after a mouse with a flame thrower, and they are over prescribed. There are so many potentially devastating side effects that there have been numerous warnings from the FDA over the past few years, encouraging doctors to reconsider prescribing these, which were originally designed to treat anthrax and bubonic plague (literally).

I took Cipro for one week for a mild condition about seven years ago and that one week destroyed both my Achilles tendons, which had to be surgically rebuilt. You can probably imagine just how much fun that was - and how often I wish I had never taken that unnecessary antibiotic.