[Preventive antibiotic therapy in orthopedic surgery].

Prophylactic antibiotics are useful if the right substance hits the right place at the right moment. Wound contamination and infection rates are generally low in clean orthopaedic wounds. Systematic treatment is therefore not justified for all patients. The high risk must nevertheless be protected. The indications for antibiotherapy, systemic or local, of eight Swiss clinics are discussed. 86% patients left these clinics without having received any systemic antibiotics at all.