Perioperative Antibiotic Prophylaxis: Surgeons as Antimicrobial Stewards

Infections in surgical patients have been recognized for millennia, but the negative consequences of how we prevent those infections is a relatively recent discovery. Indeed, as early as the 7th century, surgeons in Greece operating on patients with head trauma applied “healing drugs” at the time of operation to prevent inflammatory or infectious complications (1). What we do with our surgical patients today is not much different. Definitive evidence supporting the use of perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis (PAP) to prevent surgical site infection (SSI) mount ed at the end of the twentieth century, and with it, so did data on the wide variability in prophylactic antibiotic choices.

Source: Journal of the American College of Surgeons - September 14, 2020 Category: Surgery Authors: David Miranda, Leonard A. Mermel, E Patchen Dellinger Tags: Surgical Perspective Source Type: research