Antibiotic prophylaxis practices in cesarean section with focus on timing – a Danish national survey

Introduction: The last Danish survey in 1995 on the antibiotic prophylactic practices in cesarean section found that there was no consensus between delivery wards. Since then national guidelines have been established. We therefore wanted to see if clinical practice regarding antibiotic prophylaxis had become more uniform. Methods: In February of 2019 the delivery wards in Denmark (n=21) were contacted to answer an online questionnaire regarding type and dose of antibiotic prophylaxis used, timing of the administration, and differences between elective and emergency cesarean section. Results: All twenty-one wards applied a single dose of 1500 mg Cefuroxime, a 3rd generation cephalosporin. Three wards (14%) administered antibiotic prophylaxis after cord clamping and eighteen (86%) prior to clamping, with nine (43%) wards having changed practice during the last 10 years. Three wards recalled the precise year for the change, six wards gave an approximate range of years, and five wards did not remember. The exact timing of the antibiotic varied from 0-60 minutes prior to incision, with sixteen (76%) wards reporting giving antibiotics usually 0-30 minutes prior to and of those, eleven (52%) immediately prior. All wards had the same prophylactic antibiotics principles for emergency and elective cesarean sections. Conclusion: Most wards adhere to national guideline recommendations, but recollection was imperfect as to when changes in practices were implemented. We suggest that current and previous guidelines from hospitals in Denmark be stored in a national database, or more preferably that a national cesarean birth registry be established, accounting for the frequent local changes and interpersonal differences in clinical practice.