The protective role of intraperitoneal antibiotic irrigation in contaminated penetrating wounds of the cecum.

Neomycin (500 mg.), polymyxin (500,000 U.), and bacitracin (50,000 U.) in one liter of saline, used as an abdominal irrigation solution, protects dogs against intraperitoneal infection and wound infections and markedly curtails adhesion formation after peritoneal contamination with cecal contents. Dogs treated with topical antibiotics after cecal puncture and local contamination were almost identical to control dogs without contamination. Equal volumes of saline irrigation offered no therapeutic advantage despite the theoretical benefit of diluting the bacterial and chemical challenge. Reported results are statistically significant (rho less than or equal to 0.05).