[Prophylactic use of cefotetan in gynecologic surgery]

The efficacy of prophylactic treatment with systemic antibiotics in laparotomic gynecologic surgery is well established. Lately, short-term schemes have been preferred in surgical prophylaxis for different reasons. First of all, experimental data demonstrated that the efficacy of an antibiotic is maximal when it reaches active tissue concentrations at the time of bacterial contamination. In addition with the availability of new, long-acting antibiotics, a long period of time around the operations was possibly covered. The effectiveness of a single preoperative 2 gm dose of Cefotetan was compared with a traditional treatment of 3 gm daily of Cefazolin for one week following surgery in 86 women undergoing laparotomic gynecologic surgery for benign pathology. Our results confirm that preoperative treatment with Cefotetan is able to prevent infectious disease such as 3 gm of Cefazolin per day for one week. Thus, Cefotetan can be used for this type of prophylaxis considering its broad spectrum of action and pharmacokinetic properties.