Antibiotics in surgery. An overview.

Antibiotic utilization in the surgical patient has the two unique features of preventive use in high-risk procedures and frequent use in suspected or documented polymicrobial infection. These two features have resulted in the search for agents with broader spectrums. Although numerous antibiotics or combinations of antibiotics can be shown to provide comparable results for both preventive and therapeutic indications, no superior choice has been identified in either area. Indeed, the search for broader spectrums of antibiotics may not further improve the identified results. If this is so, newer areas of exploration in antibiotic therapy in the surgical patient will need to focus on optimizing pharmacologic, toxic, and economic features while preserving comparability in clinical outcome.