Short-term prophylaxis with cefotaxime in prostatic surgery.

During a 20 month period 167 patients undergoing transurethral resection of prostate were divided into two groups: a control group without prophylactic antibiotics and a treated group who received cefotaxime 3 g intravenously perioperatively. In the first seven post-operative days 50 patients in the control group had a urinary tract infection (greater than 10(5) cfu/ml) compared with 14 patients in the treated group (P less than 0.0001). Two blood cultures were positive, both in the controls. A full course of antibiotics was administered to 55 in the control group and 14 in the treated group. On the thirtieth post-operative day 24 patients had urinary infection in the control group compared with 5 in the treated group (P less than 0.0001). We conclude that this short-term prophylaxis with cefotaxime significantly reduced the rate of urinary infection after transurethral prostatectomy.