Wound infection following renal transplantation

A retrospective survey of wound infection following renal transplantation in 100 consecutive patients after the introduction of pre-operative antibiotic prophylaxis is reported. There was one wound haematoma but no wound infection in the 100 primary transplant wounds, and one haematoma which was followed by secondary infection in the 23 patients in whom transplant nephrectomy was performed. There were no other major wound complications. It is concluded that careful surgical technique and antibiotic prophylaxis can virtually eliminate the potentially grave complication of wound infection in this high risk group of patients.