An overview on prophylactic antibiotics in operative patients to combat post-surgical complications

Antibiotics are the class of medications intended to treat and prevent bacterial infections by predominantly acting on bacteria by either making it difficult for the organism to grow and multiply or by killing them. They play a significant role in modern healthcare in improving patient health outcomes by reducing infective complications. In the emerging use of antibiotics, the pre and post-antibiotic regimen has a huge role in reducing the post-surgical complication which thereby increases the quality of life in surgical patients. Due to the irrational use of antibiotics, there is a rapid increase in the resistance to antimicrobial agents. Therefore, the rational operative antibiotic usage depends upon the factors like skin incision time; duration and frequency of administration; immunological status of the patient. Thus the importance of operative prophylaxis antibiotics has been discussed as a part of preventing surgical complications such as surgical site infections (SSI), antimicrobial resistance, septicaemia and adverse events during the patient's stay. This review is focused on the importance of prophylactic antibiotics, especially on major clean or clean-contaminated open surgeries which include cardiac surgery, gastro surgery and neurosurgery.