Abstract

Aims & Objective: We used to afraid to avoid postoperative antibiotics in government hospitals due to variable factors. It is necessary to decrease the use of antibiotics to prevent development of antibiotic resistance and also to decrease the financial burden on patients. So we designed a study to define the role of prophylactic use of preoperative antibiotics in clean elective surgical cases.

Methods: We conducted a prospective, randomized trial comparing wound infection rates in 100 patients (group A- 50 received preoperative 2g ceftriaxone + postoperative antibiotics for 5-7 days, group B-50 received  preoperative 2g ceftriaxone only) undergoing clean elective surgical cases in Gajra Raja Medical College, Gwalior(MP). All the cases were followed up at 3rd postoperative day, at the time of discharge, 10^th postoperative day and after one month. These patients were analysed. Rate of different post-operative complications and duration of hospital stay were recorded. CDC criteria was used to define wound infection.

Result: Groups were well matched for all preoperative variables studied. The overall infection rate was 5% (5 out of 100). The incidence of wound infection in group A was 4% and 6% in group B, which was statistically insignificant. Also there was no statistically significant difference in hospital stay of patients (average hospital stay of group A patients is 2.39 days whereas in group B patients is 2.32 days).

Conclusion: Based on our results we do not recommend the routine use of post-operative antibiotic prophylaxis in clean elective case.