Postoperative wound infection: Prediction of some responsible organisms

Abstract

A long, carefully controlled study of the efficacy of a systemic antibiotic (cephaloridine) in the prevention of wound infection after elective gastrointestinal operations allowed some detailed microbiologic study of the patients and their wounds. Routine culture of subcutaneous tissue after fascial closure in such operations is valuable in predicting some of the organisms that will be present if clinical sepsis develops after operation. Such cultures are likely to be available to the clinician when clinical sepsis is first suspected, and he may well make the selection of the antibiotic more intelligently pending the ultimate diagnosis of the illness and the determination of its causes. Infection as seen in this study was regularly associated with multiple strains of bacteria. No conclusions can be drawn regarding the significance of anaerobic sepsis. A long, carefully controlled study of the efficacy of a systemic antibiotic (cephaloridine) in the prevention of wound infection after elective gastrointestinal operations allowed some detailed microbiologic study of the patients and their wounds. Routine culture of subcutaneous tissue after fascial closure in such operations is valuable in predicting some of the organisms that will be present if clinical sepsis develops after operation. Such cultures are likely to be available to the clinician when clinical sepsis is first suspected, and he may well make the selection of the antibiotic more intelligently pending the ultimate diagnosis of the illness and the determination of its causes. Infection as seen in this study was regularly associated with multiple strains of bacteria. No conclusions can be drawn regarding the significance of anaerobic sepsis.