However, a number of other conditions may occasionally mimic tetanus. These include dental abscesses, peritonsillar infections, and submaxillary lymphadenitis. Trismus, neck stiffness, and generalized spasms may be mistaken for encephalitis, encephalomyelitis, meningitis, or intracranial hemorrhage.
The only condition that mimics tetanus the most is strychnine poisoning. One of the typical symptoms of tetanus is trismus which may be present in many other conditions.
Strychnine poisoning is the only condition that truly mimics tetanus. However, a number of conditions (eg, dental or other local infections, hysteria, neoplasms, and encephalitis) may cause trismus, and these must be differentiated these conditions from tetanus.
Your doctor will perform a physical exam and ask about your medical history. No specific lab test is available to diagnose tetanus. Tests may be used to rule out meningitis, rabies, strychnine poisoning, and other diseases with similar symptoms.
Tetanus must be differentiated from other diseases that present with fever and rigidity such as strychnine poisoning, dental infections, drug reactions, hypocalcemia, meningitis, stroke, and stiff man syndrome.
Meningitis and encephalitis (brain infections) can cause similar spasms and rigidity, but they usually interfere with senses such as hearing, while tetanus doesn't. Taking a sample of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) allows the doctor to rule out both of these diseases.
Diagnosis. Doctors can diagnose tetanus by asking about recent history of cuts, scrapes, punctures, and trauma, and examining someone for certain signs and symptoms. There are no hospital lab tests that can confirm tetanus.
You may have stiff and weak muscles only in the area of the wound. This is called localized tetanus. Symptoms may go away without treatment, or they may spread. Infection that spreads is called generalized.
People commonly think of lockjaw as a symptom of tetanus infection, but the muscle spasms of lockjaw can also occur from injury, periodontal infections, medication, or temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders.
Localized tetanus is an unusual form of the disease consisting of muscle spasms in a confined area close to the site of the injury. Although localized tetanus often occurs in people with partial immunity and is usually mild, progression to generalized tetanus can occur.
Doctors diagnose tetanus based on a physical exam, medical and vaccination history, and the signs and symptoms of muscle spasms, muscle rigidity and pain.
The average time from infection to appearance of signs and symptoms (incubation period) is 10 days. The incubation period can range from 3 to 21 days. The most common type of tetanus is called generalized tetanus. Signs and symptoms begin gradually and then progressively worsen over two weeks.
Some affected people may experience only pain and tingling at the wound site and some spasms in muscles near the injury site to start with. As things progress, there can be stiffness of the jaw (called lockjaw) and neck muscles, irritability, and difficulty swallowing.
0 or 1 – Mild tetanus; mortality below 10% 2 or 3 – Moderate tetanus; mortality of 10-20% 4 – Severe tetanus; mortality of 20-40% 5 or 6 – Very severe tetanus; mortality above 50%
What does tetanus look like on the skin? Tetanus infections do not cause a rash and the wound will not show signs of tetanus. The first symptoms can take days, weeks, or even months to appear and usually start at the jaw. From the outside, tetanus may look like muscle tightness in the jaw, neck, and face.
A common first sign of tetanus is muscular stiffness in the jaw (lockjaw). Other symptoms include stiffness of the neck, trouble swallowing, painful muscle stiffness all over the body, spasms, sweating, and fever.
Early signs of a tetanus infection include headache and muscle spasms in your jaw. Tetanus is often called lockjaw because one of the early symptoms of the condition includes jaw cramping. Your jaw muscles may tighten. This makes it difficult to open your mouth.
Most people who develop symptoms of tetanus eventually recover, although it can take several weeks or months.
Tetanus is an infection caused by bacteria called Clostridium tetani. When these bacteria enter the body, they produce a toxin that causes painful muscle contractions. Another name for tetanus is “lockjaw”. It often causes a person's neck and jaw muscles to lock, making it hard to open the mouth or swallow.
Symptoms of tetanus may not begin to appear until a week after the injury, so as a rule of thumb, try to get the tetanus booster shot within 48 hours of the injury.
Many people grow up believing they will get tetanus from stepping on a rusty nail. And while a puncture wound from a nail is something to take seriously, you don't get tetanus from rust. Rather, bacteria that live in soil and feces cause tetanus.
Symptoms are strikingly opposite: tetanus is characterized by unrelieved tension or spasticity of the striated muscles and botulism by a limp or flaccid state of the same muscles. In both cases, the muscles can no longer be moved in a coordinated manner, resulting in respiratory paralysis and death.
Diphtheria: a serious infection of the throat that can block the airway and cause severe breathing problems. Tetanus (lockjaw): a nerve disease that can happen at any age, caused by toxin-producing bacteria contaminating a wound.
Abstract. Botulism and tetanus are two severe neurological diseases in man and animals. While botulism is characterized by a descendant flaccid paralysis, tetanus consists in spastic paralysis. In the severe forms of both diseases, death occurs by respiratory distress.