Abstract
Two hundred patients in a major Indian hospital who were undergoing clean operations participated in a prospective, randomised, controlled clinical trial of the effectiveness of systemic antibiotics in preventing wound infectious. Of the patients on antibiotics 12.6% developed wound infections and of those not on antibiotics 13.3% did--a difference of no significance. Other factors analysed which included age, duration of operation, place on the operating list and length of the incision did not appear to effect the incidence of infection. Wound infection delayed the discharge of the patient from hospital by seven days. Avoiding antibiotic prophylaxis in these operations would have saved our hospital 12,500 pounds a year. We suggest that prophylactic antibiotics are ineffective in preventing wound infection after clean operations in India. Their use is wasteful and should be discouraged.
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Selected References
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