[National survey of antibiotic use after abdominal surgery]

A postal survey of 283 members of the Israeli Association of Surgeons was conducted to determine their current practices as to duration of antibiotic therapy following emergency abdominal operations (response rate 26.5%). The maximal acceptable length of antibiotic administration after various emergency operations was based on recommendations in the recent literature. By these criteria, about half those responding were using excessive courses of post-operative antibiotics. We conclude that failure to distinguish between contamination, which requires either minimal post-operative administration of antibiotics or none at all, and infection which requires a proper postoperative course, is the main reason for unnecessarily prolonged postoperative use of antibiotics.