Why the study?
Does prophylactic high-dose treatment with ampicillin and cloxacillin increase bleeding time and bleeding in patients undergoing elective vascular surgery?
Does prophylactic high-dose treatment with ampicillin and cloxacillin increase bleeding time and bleeding in patients undergoing elective vascular surgery?
Prophylactic high-dose ampicillin and cloxacillin slightly prolongs bleeding time in vascular surgery patients, but abnormal bleeding is rare unless additional haemostatic defects are present.
High-dose ampicillin/cloxacillin prophylaxis warrants hemostatic caution in vascular surgery; this RCT confirms modest bleeding-time effects without routine clinical bleeding.
50 patients undergoing elective vascular surgery were randomized to prophylactic antibiotic treatment with ampicillin 2 g X 4 + cloxacillin 1 g X 4 for 4 d following the operation, or to a control group without antibiotics. All patients received heparin subcutaneously 5000 IU X 2, for 7 d. On days 1 and 4 after the operation, the median bleeding time was 1 1/2-2 min longer in the antibiotics group. 5 patients on antibiotics had a bleeding time prolongation beyond the normal range, but only 2 of these, who had additional haemostatic defects, had abnormal bleeding.
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Wislöff et al. (1983) studied this question.
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