[Transurethral surgery and persistent urinary infection: effect of a single preoperative dose of cefuroxime]

To evaluate the efficacy of cefuroxime, a second generation cephalosporin, in minimizing the risk of per and postoperative infection complications in patients with urinary tract infection undergoing transurethral surgery, 86 patients (ASA I, II) with persistent urinary tract infection despite antibiotic therapy were studied. A double blind protocol was followed. Patients were randomly assigned to receive 10 minutes before surgery either I.V. cefuroxime (1.5 g) (group C, n = 39) or placebo (group P, n = 47) the incidence of positive peroperative systematic blood cultures was lower in group C (9.7%) than in group P (25.2%) (p less than 0.001). The incidence of postoperative blood cultures taken when clinical septic signs were present, was significantly lower in group C (0%) than in group P (21.7%) (p less than 0.05). However neither the incidences of both postoperative urinary tract infection at the 48th postoperative hour and the clinical signs of bacteraemia including fever nor the average length of hospitalization were significantly different in the 2 groups. This lack of significant clinical benefit was not explained by the pharmacokinetic properties of this antibiotic. Thus, preoperative administration of a single dose of cefuroxime, reduces the incidence of per and postoperative bacteraemias in ASA I-II patients with persistent urinary tract infection.