Antibiotic prophylaxis adequacy assessment and its influence on surgical site infection in peripheral vascular bypass surgery

Objective: We sought to assess the degree of antibiotic prophylaxis adequacy to our surgical antibiotic prophylaxis protocol among patients who underwent peripheral vascular bypass surgery. Materials and Methods: Prospective cohort study. Adequacy to protocol was studied by comparing the different aspects of prophylaxis received by patients to those stipulated in the protocol in force at our hospital. Incidence of surgical wound infection was calculated and the effect of prophylaxis inadequacy on the incidence of surgical wound infection was estimated using the relative risk. Results: The study covered 266 patients. Incidence of surgical site infection (SSI) after the follow-up period was 5.3% (95% Confidence interval [CI]: 3.0-9.4). Overall adequacy to the protocol of antibiotic prophylaxis was 91.0% (95% CI: 87.6-94.4). The most frequent cause of inadequacy to the protocol was time of initiation of antibiotic prophylaxis (94.1%). No relationship was found between SSI and antibiotic prophylaxis inadequacy (relative risk: 2.4; 95% CI: 0.49-12.5; p > 0.05). Conclusions: Global adequacy to protocol of antibiotic prophylaxis was high. The most frequent cause of inadequacy to the protocol was time of initiation of antibiotic prophylaxis.