A study comparing preoperative intra-incisional antibiotic infiltration and prophylactic intravenous antibiotic administration for reducing surgical site infection

Introduction: Surgical site infection (SSI) continues to be a distressing problem since time immemorial, as it happens to be one of the major causes of post-operative morbidity and mortality. Many methods have been evolved to combat wound infection, but the rate of wound infection has been more or less static over the past few decades. The search for alternative modes of management is going on and one of the methods is intra-incisional infiltration of antibiotics. Aims and Objectives: To study the comparative efficacy of pre-operative intra-incisional antibiotic infiltration and prophylactic parenteral antibiotic therapy in reducing surgical site infection. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective randomized controlled study comprising of 120 patients divided in to three groups i.e. 40 in each group. Group A comprising 40 patients were subjected to local infiltration of 1 gram of Cefotaxime around the site of incision, 20 min before the induction of anesthesia. Group B comprising of 40 patients were administered a single dose of 1 gram of Cefotaxime intravenously 20 minutes before the surgical incision and Group C comprising of 40 patients were administered local infiltration of 1 gram of Cefotaxime as well as intravenous administration of 1 gram of Cefotaxime, 20 minutes before surgical incision. Inclusion criteria were patients in age group of 20-60 yrs, procedures that lasted for less than 2 hours, clean and clean contaminated surgical procedures. The exclusion criteria were patients with diabetes mellitus and those on steroid therapy. Incidence of SSI, type of organisms cultured in case of infection were studied. Results: Overall incidence of SSI in Group A was 10%, in Group B 18%, and Group C 2.5%. Frequency of infection due to gram positive bacteria was more as compared to gram negative in the cases that developed SSI. The commonest organism isolated was Methicillin Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA). Conclusion: The incidence of SSI was lower in the group of patients who were subjected to intra-incisional antibiotic infiltration as compared to the group who received prophylactic intravenous (IV) antibiotic. There was significant reduction in incidence of SSI in the group, which received both Intra-incisional as well as IV antibiotics. There was no definite correlation between the duration of surgery to the development of SSI in this study