Effect of prophylactic intravenous ceftriaxone in maxillofacial surgery.

Cephalosporins are commonly used in maxillofacial surgery because they achieve high concentrations in bone. Prophylactic antibiotic therapy was given to 65 patients undergoing diverse surgical procedures. 20 patients received cefotiam in 2 doses of 2 g for 5 days; 15 patients received cefotiam in 2 doses of 2 g only perioperatively. No difference was found between these two groups with respect to prophylactic protection against infection. A further 15 patients received ceftriaxone in a single dose of 2 g preoperatively. Since we found that local infection and febrile morbidity was not significantly different even in the 'one-shot' group, we investigated the effect of 'low-dose' prophylaxis with only 1 g ceftriaxone preoperatively in another 15 patients. We found that this dose was sufficient to prevent infection in patients.