Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Surgical Procedures: a Survey from an Italian University Hospital
- 1 January 1998
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Chemotherapy
- Vol. 10 (5) , 375-380
- https://doi.org/10.1179/joc.1998.10.5.375
Abstract
The aims of this study were: 1) to evaluate the surgical prophylaxis regimens adopted by surgeons of the University Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the 2nd University of Naples during the period January-March 1996; 2) to compare uses of antibiotic prophylaxis carried out in surgical departments to standard international guidelines; 3) to assess the cost of surgical prophylaxis. Data from 1,085 surgical patients from January 1, 1996 to March 31, 1996, were collected, reporting surgical department, type of surgery, antibiotics used, dosage, and length of the prophylactic treatment. Collected data underwent computer-assisted evaluation and comparison to the international guidelines. Four-hundred and twenty-five patients with concomitant diseases, who did not meet inclusion criteria into standard guidelines, were excluded from the study. The remaining patients (N = 660) underwent clean or clean-contaminated surgical procedures. Two-hundred and twenty patients underwent clean surgical procedures, with prophylactic antibiotic treatment lasting from 1.1 +/- 0.3 to 4.6 +/- 2.8 days. Four-hundred and forty patients underwent a clean-contaminated surgical procedure, with antibiotic prophylaxis lasting from 3.6 +/- 2.4 to 5.2 +/- 3.7 days. Third generation cephalosporins were the most frequently used antibiotics both in patients undergoing clean (163 patients = 74.1%), and clean-contaminated surgical procedures (321 patients = 73%). The resulting costs were about ten-fold higher than costs of antibiotic prophylaxis carried out according to international guidelines. In conclusion, our research highlights the habit of non-compliance with standard guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis both in terms of drug choice and treatment duration.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Wound Infection in Head and Neck Surgery: Implications for Perioperative Antibiotic TreatmentEar, Nose & Throat Journal, 1997
- Prevention of Bacterial EndocarditisJAMA, 1997
- Prophylactic Antibiotics in SurgeryAnnual Review of Medicine, 1993
- Antimicrobial Prophylaxis for Surgical WoundsArchives of Surgery, 1993
- The Timing of Prophylactic Administration of Antibiotics and the Risk of Surgical-Wound InfectionNew England Journal of Medicine, 1992
- Antimicrobial Prophylaxis in SurgeryNew England Journal of Medicine, 1986