[Comparative study of ticarcillin and of carbenicillin as prophylactic treatment in the oncologic surgery of head and neck (author's transl)].

The frequency of postoperative infections in oncologic head and neck surgery can be reduced by the prophylactic use of antibiotics. In order to assess such preventive treatments as to their advantages and disadvantages, a controlled clinical trial was undertaken. The prophylactic use of antibiotics was used in 107 patients, operated for tumors of the upper airway-digestive tract. According to a previous randomisation, the patients received either carbenicillin either ticarcillin. The efficiency of carbenicillin and ticarcillin proved similar. The results obtained with these antibiotics turned out to be superior to those previously obtained with combined ampicillin and cloxacillin; the number of wound infections, primary and secondary, was lessened. The most frequent complications were thrombophlebitis at the site of intravenous perfusion of the antibiotics and hypokaliemia.