Association between nonadministration of subconjunctival cefuroxime and postoperative endophthalmitis

To determine whether not administering subconjunctival cefuroxime during cataract surgery is associated with postoperative endophthalmitis.

Southampton Eye Unit, Southampton General Hospital, England.

This retrospective, case-control study comprised nine patients who developed endophthalmitis after cataract surgery in a single ophthalmic unit over a 21 month period. Ten control patients for each case were randomly chosen from patients having cataract surgery within 1 week of the endophthalmitis case.

None of the nine endophthalmitis patients received peroperative subconjunctival cefuroxime compared with 43 of 90 control patients (47.8%) (P = 0.008). No other variables were found to be associated with development of endophthalmitis in this study.

Nonadministration of subconjunctival cefuroxime was associated with subsequent endophthalmitis. A further study to determine whether the observed association is causal is therefore warranted.