A comparison of cephazolin sodium and co-trimoxazole as prophylactic antibiotics in out-patient urinary tract endoscopy.

Five-hundred patients were entered into a study to compare intramuscular cephazolin sodium with intramuscular co-trimoxazole in reducing the incidence of post-endoscopy rigor in out-patients. Urine cultures were carried out immediately before, immediately after, and 24 h after endoscopy and the incidence of post-procedure symptoms was elicited by pre-paid reply post cards. Similar rigor rates (9%) were obtained in the 2 groups. The incidence of sensitivity of the significant cultured organisms to the 2 antibiotics was high, but no correlation was found between the presence of infected urine and rigor, and possible reasons for this are discussed. Patients found intramuscular administration of co-trimoxazole to be painful and the 10% incidence of rigor is no improvement on the 8% rigor rate obtained in those who received cephazolin.