Preoperative Antibiotics Influence Culture Yield in the Treatment of Hand, Wrist, and Forearm Infections.

ABSTRACT: When treating upper-extremity infections, clinicians frequently must decide whether to initiate antibiotics or delay them with the goal of optimizing culture yield at the time of surgical debridement. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the administration of preoperative antibiotics affects intraoperative culture yield and whether there is a "safe" interval prior to culture acquisition within which antibiotics can be administered without affecting culture yield. We conducted a retrospective review of 470 consecutive patients who underwent debridement for a presumed acute infection of the hand, wrist, or forearm at a single tertiary care center between January 2015 and May 2020. Data including patient demographics, mechanism of infection and affected body part(s), and details

SUBMITTER: Dutton LK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8947606 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan-Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature