[Antibiotic prophylaxis in surgery: news and controversies]

Preoperative administration of antibiotics to prevent possible post-surgical infections represents a cornerstone of modern medicine. Although the general principles of surgical prophylaxis have been quite clearly defined during the last few decades, advenaces in surgical techniques, the changes in bacterial ecology in hospital, the spread of bacterial resistance and the substantial increase in the surgical population at risk, suggest that several aspects of surgical prophylaxis should be reviewed and new controlled studies should be carried on. The American guidelines for surgical prophylaxis, worked out recently by the CDC, have not modified their general structure, and have strongly influenced the protocols and the prescriptive behaviour of other countries, including Italy. The following points suggest that these guidelines are probably no longer adeguate for the situation in question: evidence from several sources would extend the advisability of antibiotic prophylaxis to other clean surgeries; the current classification of surgical procedures does not consider the "new" population of risk patients; the duration of prophylaxis and its role in preventing post-surgical infections "at a distance" infections has not been carefully defined; the evolution of bacterial epidemiology and bacterial resistance and the contemporary availability of new antibiotics has moved the fear of a post-antibiotic era In the clinical practice, according to these considerations and whilst awaiting the results of new clinical trials, in some cases and for some at risk patients it would appear justified to use third generation cephalosporins and especially ceftriaxone that, because of its peculiar pharmacokinetcs characteristics, guarantees with a single dose the same efficacy of three doses of other cephalosporins.