M A Zahid, Azhar Nasir, Zafar Iqbal Malik, Muhammad Shafique.
Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Clean Surgical Cases.
J Surg Jan ;21-22:32-5.

Prevention of infection is a main concern for any surgeon, and antibiotics have got an established role in prophylaxis. In the current study, cephradine was used for prophylaxis in two similar groups of patients, in two different regimens. In group-A patients, it was used in 3 doses of one gm: first dose timed at the induction of anaesthesia, and other two doses given at 6 hours and 12 hours after the first dose. In group-B, the dose was 500 mg intravenously 6 hourly, switched to oral form, and continued for a total of 5-8 days. The aim of the study was to compare the incidence of wound infection in the two groups. One patient of group A and three of group B showed mild wound infection. This shows that continuation of antibiotic prophylaxis in post-operative period is unnecessary. CONCLUSION: The antibiotics are amongst the most misused drugs in clinical practice. Antibiotic misuse not only increases the treatment cost unnecessarily, but also exposes the patients to the risks of drug toxicity and other side effects. An over zealous surgical prophylaxis also constitutes one form of antibiotic misuse. The continuation of prophylactic antibiotics in post-operative period was considered to be unnecessary in many other reports as well.

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