A comparative study of cephapirin, cephalothin, and methicillin in cardiovascular surgery.

An open, randomized study involving 217 patients undergoing elective cardiovascular surgery was undertaken to compare the effectiveness of cephapirin, cephalothin, and methicillin in preventing postoperative infections. One of the three antibiotics was assigned randomly to each patient and administered beginning 2 h before operation and continuing every 6 h for 5 days. There was no significant difference between the three study groups with respect to the incidence of infection (p = 0.9913). In both the cephalothin and methicillin groups, seven patients developed adverse reactions as compared with two patients in the cephapirin group. However, the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.0788). The results from the investigation indicate that cephapirin, cephalothin, and methicillin are equally effective as prophylactic antibiotics when used perioperatively for cardiovascular surgery.