Wound swab
Framing
- Wound swabbing serves two distinct diagnostic purposes depending on suspected aetiology: bacterial culture (to guide antibiotic therapy in a clinically infected wound, distinguishing infection from colonisation) and viral PCR (to confirm HSV/VZV in a vesicular or ulcerative lesion) - the two are not interchangeable and technique/interpretation differ substantially between them
- Swab technique (deep wound bed sampling for bacterial culture; intact vesicle unroofing for viral PCR) directly affects diagnostic yield in both cases
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