Despite the Safety of Preoperative Cefazolin for Patients With Non-anaphylactic Penicillin Allergy, 20% of Practitioners Avoid Its Use.

Despite the Safety of Preoperative Cefazolin for Patients With Non-anaphylactic Penicillin Allergy, 20% of Practitioners Avoid Its Use. Orthopedics. 2019 Jun 11;:1-6 Authors: Pettett BJ, Eskildsen SM, Huang KX, Ostrum RF Abstract Cefazolin is commonly used for surgical site infection prophylaxis due to its low cost and effective coverage. However, it is controversial to use cefazolin in patients with a penicillin allergy despite the cross-reactivity between cefazolin and penicillin being only 1%. Ample literature shows that it is safe to use cefazolin in patients with non-anaphylactic penicillin allergies. However, there is often hesitation by anesthesiologists or orthopedists when prescribing this medication in this population. The current authors sent a 16-question survey to all the residency programs in the United States in anesthesiology and orthopedics asking physicians affiliated with these programs to answer a series of questions about their demographics, prescribing patterns, and knowledge of the cross-reactivity between penicillin and cefazolin. A total of 146 responses in each group, with 82.9% (n=121) of orthopedists and 78.8% (n=115) of anesthesiologists preferring cefazolin for patients with non-anaphylactic penicillin allergies. However, only 57.5% of anesthesiologists and 41.1% of orthopedists knew the correct cross-reactivity between cephalosporins and penicillin. If a provider knew the correct cross-reactivity betwee...
Source: Orthopedics - Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Tags: Orthopedics Source Type: research