Assessment of chemoprophylaxis in open-heart surgery patients.

Regular assay of antibiotics in the sera of patients may be helpful in open-heart surgery patients, neurosurgery patients, immunosuppressed individuals, patients on antineoplastic therapy, or other high-risk patient groups. It may be especially helpful in regulating their antibiotic dosages and in giving forewarning about impending bacterial infections. A method for simultaneous serum assay of two antibiotics belonging to the same penicillin group of drugs is described here. Such combined assay procedures are usually not undertaken, largely due to the technical difficulties involved. The procedures described here should prove helpful in monitoring antibiotic therapy in patients on combined Ampi-Clox regimen, whenever necessary.