Postoperative neurosurgical infection and antibiotic prophylaxis

The most suitable antibiotics for chemoprophylaxis in neurosurgery and risk factors for postoperative neurosurgical infection were investigated by retrospective analysis of 807 neurosurgical procedures in 566 patients between 1980 and 1989. Prophylactic antibiotics were administered intravenously for 6 or 7 postoperative days in all instances. The 807 operations were classified according to the antibiotics used into: 1) penicillin, 2) cephem-I, 3) cephem-II, 4) cephem-III, and 5) others. Postoperative neurosurgical infections occurred in 27 of 807 operations (3.3%), or 27 of 566 patients (4.8%). Hypertension and surgery performed in summer carried a significantly higher risk of infection. Diabetes mellitus, steroid administration, prolonged surgery, re-exploration, and surgery for hemorrhagic cerebrovascular diseases were associated with increased risk, but were not statistically significant. Infection rates by type of chemoprophylaxis were: 3.6% in the penicillin group, 3.7% in the cephem-I group, 1.7% in the cephem-II group, 5.7% in the cephem-III group, and 2.8% in the others group. This result indicates that the best choice for prophylactic antibiotic therapy may be a second-generation cephem.