[Current status of perioperative preventive use of antibiotics in colorectal surgery]

The rate of postoperative wound infections following colorectal surgery can be considerably reduced by rational perioperative short-time antibiotic prophylaxis. The anaerobic and aerobic microflora of the colon as well as the half-life of the medicaments used have to be taken into due consideration for good choice of antibiotics. Persistent orthograde intestinal flushing, using physiological electrolyte solution without any addition of antibiotics, on the eve of surgery as well as perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis "en flash", using slow-drop intravenous infusion of 1 g Ornidazole and 2 g Mezlocilline along with introduction of anaesthesia, made for a good approach to reducing wound infections following colorectal surgery to two per cent. Twice as much antibiotics were administered for 24 to 28 hours in emergency cases in which preoperative intestinal flushing was not possible. This helped to reduce the rate of postoperative infections from 32 to six per cent.