Single dose pre-operative antimicrobial prophylaxis in abdominal operations

Single dose pre-operative prophylaxis of tinidazole and doxycycline has recently been demonstrated to reduce infectious complications following colorectal surgery. The possible effect of such prophylaxis was studied in 661 patients undergoing elective non-colonic abdominal surgery. In a prospective controlled multicentre study 334 patients received 1600 mg tinidazole and 400 mg doxycycline pre-operatively while 327 untreated patients acted as controls. Antimicrobial prophylaxis led to a highly significant reduction in infectious complications ( P <0·0001), post-operative use of antimicrobial agents ( P <0·001) and post-operative non-infectious complication ( P <0·05). The mortality of 3·4% in the control group was reduced to 1·2%, a difference slightly below the level of significance.