Antibiotic prophylaxis in intraoral orthognathic surgery

A prospective randomized double-blind study was conducted to evaluate two prophylactic antibiotic regimens in a population of 40 patients undergoing intraoral orthognathic surgery. All patients received one intramuscular dose of 600,000 units procaine penicillin G and 400,000 units aqueous penicillin G preoperatively. Two million units aqueous penicillin G were administered intravenously every three hours intraoperatively and postoperatively three hours after the last intraoperative dose. One group of 20 patients then received 2 million units aqueous penicillin G intravenously every four hours for a total of 12 doses (two days) postoperatively. The second group of 20 patients received a placebo intravenously every four hours for a total of 12 doses (two days) postoperatively. Three infections occurred in the group of patients receiving the placebo postoperatively and none in the group of patients receiving the antibiotics postoperatively.