Clinical practice guidelines for surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis: Qualitative appraisals and synthesis of...

Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for preoperative care have been developed for surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis (SAP). The objective of this study was to synthetize recommendations for SAP based on best-evaluated CPGs.

A systematic literature search for documents related to SAP, published between January 2011 and December 2016, was conducted on MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, and specific CPG websites. Three reviewers independently assessed the rigour of development and editorial independence of CPGs based on domains 3 and 6 of the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation II (AGREE II) instrument. CPGs with domain 3 scores of 50% and greater were selected for synthesis of recommendations. Two reviewers independently extracted CPG recommendations from among these documents. A third reviewer performed the synthesis of recommendations.

The search retrieved 363 documents, of which 29 CPGs were appraised using AGREE II. Only eight (28%) scored 50% and greater in domain 3. Most CPGs addressed topics related to preoperative care, including SAP. No conflicting recommendations were found, and most recommendations were based on clinical practice. The only recommendation for which there was a difference among CPGs was with respect to the time to initiate the administration of antibiotics (1 hour before or close to the time of the surgical incision). Four CPGs provide recommendations that demonstrate concern about inadequate SAP prolongation.

Several CPGs for SAP were developed without the desired methodological rigour or transparency. Synthesis of recommendations for best-evaluated CPGs provides a broad approach owing to the complementarity of the recommendations.