Adherence to guidelines for surgical antibiotic prophylaxis: a review

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES: The appropriate use of antibiotic prophylaxis in the perioperative period may reduce the rate of infection in the surgical site. The purpose of this review was to evaluate adherence to guidelines for surgical antibiotic prophylaxis. METHODS: The present systematic review was performed according to the Cochrane Collaboration methodology. The databases selected for this review were: Medline (via PubMed), Scopus and Portal (BVS) with selection of articles published in the 2004–2014 period from the Lilacs and Cochrane databases. RESULTS: The search recovered 859 articles at the databases, with a total of 18 studies selected for synthesis. The outcomes of interest analyzed in the articles were as follows: appropriate indication of antibiotic prophylaxis (ranging from 70.3% to 95%), inappropriate indication (ranging from 2.3% to 100%), administration of antibiotic at the correct time (ranging from 12.73% to 100%), correct antibiotic choice (ranging from 22% to 95%), adequate discontinuation of antibiotic (ranging from 5.8% to 91.4%), and adequate antibiotic prophylaxis (ranging from 0.3% to 84.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Significant variations were observed in all the outcomes assessed, and all the studies indicated a need for greater adherence to guidelines for surgical antibiotic prophylaxis.