A cohort study of preoperative single dose versus four doses of antibiotics for patients with non-complicated acute appendicitis

Abstract EN

Objective: To Test the efficacy of single preoperative dose of Cefotaxime 1gm and Metronidazole 500mg in reducing the surgical site infections (SSIs) after open appendectomy in patients with non-complicated appendicitis (NCA) Place and Duration of Study: Al Hilla General Teaching Hospital, Babel Governorate-Iraq, from January 2013 to January 2014.

Patients & Methods: 100 patients, who underwent appendectomy for NCA and fulfilled the selection criteria, were randomized into two groups.

The patients in group A received a single dose of pre-operative antibiotics (Cefotaxime sodium and metronidazole), while the group B patients received three more dose of the same antibiotics postoperatively.

Patients of both groups were followed-up for 30 days to assess the postoperative infective complications.

Results: Group A had 48, while group B comprised of 52 patients.

The groups were comparable in the baseline characteristics.

Statistically, P value in rates of SSIs between both the groups was 0.9182.

None of the patients developed intra-abdominal collection.

Conclusion: Single dose of pre-operative antibiotics (Cefotaxime and metronidazole) was sufficient in reducing the SSIs after appendectomy for NPA.

Postoperative antibiotics did not add an appreciable clinical benefit in these patients.