+44 330 818 7254Dr. S. E. Oriaifo and Dr. N. I. Oriaifo
Surgical site infections account for approximately 15% of nosocomial infections and are associated with increased morbidity, mortality and drain on resources. The objective of the study was to investigate the antibiotic flora of appendix wounds and the comparative status of ciprofloxacin, gentamycin, trimethoprim - sulphamethoxazole in combination with metronidazole as antibiotic prophylactics. It was designed to be a single - centre, prospective, randomized, double -blind study in which the patient and the surgeon/investigator did not know the antibiotic(s) administered till the end - point which was 30 days post - surgery. Patients were randomly assigned to receive gentamycin, trimethoprim - sulphamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin respectively in combination with metronidazole so that each combination had 100 patients. All the drugs were given intravenously except the trimethoprim - sulfamethoxazole. Analysis showed the ciprofloxacin + metronidazole, trimethoprim - sulphamethoxazole + metronidazole and gentamycin + metronidazole combinations to give 0.00%, 2.00% and 12.00% wound infection rates respectively. Results were statistically significant (P < 0.05) with the DMR post-hoc test showing the ciprofloxacin + metronidazole combination as the source of the significant difference. In conclusion, the results show that the administration of prophylactic antibiotics within a specific interval perioperatively reduces the burden of surgical site infection.
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