[Topical ampicilin and local infectious complications in oncological surgery]

420 consecutive patients having clean surgical operations were studied: 210 of them, selected at random, received 0.5-1 g of ampicillin into the wound before closure, the remainder being controls. Patients were examined for wound infection during the first postoperative week, in line with the opinion that topical antibiotic treatment can afford significant protection against wound infection caused by peroperative contamination. Wound infection has been defined as a local inflammation (redness and hyperthermia), usually with fever and/or discharge of pus. In some doubtful cases, a longer observation period was necessary to obtain a correct interpretation. Four out of 210 clean wounds (1.9%) became infected in the patients receiving ampicillin compared with 12 out of 210 (5.7%) in the control group. The difference could have arisen by chance less that one in a hundred times (p less than 0.01). It is our opinion therefore that after clean operations, the higher the risk of local infection, the more effective the topical use of antibiotics.