The role of chemoprophylaxis in the prevention of surgical wound infections: Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Surgical site infection (SSI) is the third most common cause of nosocomial infections and the most common complication in surgical patients. Antibiotic prophylaxis aims to prevent the intraoperative infections, which are located in the area of the surgical wound and lead to abscesses and other deep-seated infections.

Aim: The purpose of this systematic review was to study the role of chemoprophylaxis in the prevention of infections in general surgery and breast surgery in adults.

Methodology: A systematic review of the literature and search of articles in the international databases Pubmed, Scopus, CochraneLibrary was carried out through a process of review / evaluation of articles. A timeline was set regarding the date of publication of the articles (articles that have been published in the last 5 years, 2015-2020).

Results: The review found 7 articles that met the criteria for their participation. The use of chemoprophylaxis preoperatively in potentially septic surgeries, mainly for enterectomies, appendectomies, is associated with reduced rates of LXT. While there is a difference, in aseptic or clean operations, such as mastectomy or hernias, in which no preoperative antibiotics were given. In these results, there were no differences between the control groups and the intervention groups that separated the patients.

Conclusions: To prevent infection it is important to make proper use and selection of the appropriate antibiotic. Unnecessary use of antibiotics to prevent SSI has negative effect, as it cause resistance to gems and increase the cost of treatment. For this reason, health professionals should consider all risk factors that may affect the duration of perioperative chemoprophylaxis as well as the type of antibiotics to be used, such as age, co-infection in a remote area, metabolic diseases, long surgeries, poor hemostasis.

Keywords: Chemoprevention, antibiotics, surgical procedures, infection