[Preoperative topical antibiotics in patients subjected to short term prophylaxis for colorectal surgery]

In spite of the widespread use of antibiotics wound infection are still a common complication of elective colon and rectal surgery. Oral administration of poorly absorbed antibiotics was for a long time a common practice in preparing patients for elective clo-rectal operations. Systemic antibiotic prophylaxis allowed a significant improvement of septic complication rate. As the clinical effectiveness of the combined antibiotic regimen is still not completely demonstrated, we carried out a study on 165 patients who underwent colo-rectal surgery. A group of 63 patients submitted to short term prophylaxis with Clindamycin and Gentamycin was compared with a 102 patients group who received preoperative topic antibiotics (Neomycin and Metronidazole) plus short term prophylaxis. The two groups did not show a statistically significative incidence of wound infections (6.3% vs 3.9%; p greater than 0.05).